The future of the automobile lies in smart cars, and companies like Google know this very well, with the development of “digital versions” of our vehicles.
[Las furgonetas sin conductor llegarán a España, con una tablet y cámaras que detectan peatones]
In the future, these smart cars will even be able to drive themselves. There are already self-driving experiences at different levels, but so far it’s not possible to just get out of the car and let it find its way. But something similar is possible in controlled environments.
The parking car
This has been achieved by the alliance between Bosch and Mercedes-Benz, which has developed an automatic valet parking system that finds the dedicated space and parks the car on its own. And all without having to lift a finger.
The Mercedes application will allow us to leave our car in the parking lot or call it
The system works via the Mercedes Me app, available on Android and iPhone, and at the moment it only works at Stuttgart airport, which is appropriate given that the manufacturer’s headquarters are there. Using the system is simple, just book a parking space in advance and leave the car in a special area; after the relevant checks, the car will start and park itself in the reserved area. When we return from our trip, a notification will let us know that the car has started and let us know where it will be waiting to pick us up.
This system takes advantage of an important factor: in places like airports or shopping malls, parking lots never change and are always well delimited and defined. Thanks to this, it is possible to tell the car to go to the indicated place, since it will not have to make very complicated decisions that require a truly autonomous system. In addition, the system depends on a network of sensors installed in the car park and for this reason, for the moment, it is limited to a specific location and floor.
Therefore, these cars have the equivalent of Level 4 autonomy, which allows the car to take control in a bounded area but is not able to leave or go where desired.
While that may not seem like much, it’s a big step forward, and Bosch acknowledges it, saying this kind of automatic parking will be the start of autonomous driving in our daily lives.
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