You may never have to deal with parking again thanks to autonomous garages

By Lulu Chang July 24, 2017

Mercedes-Benz presents AVP: Bosch and Daimler realised Automated Valet Parking.

You may not hate driving enough to wish to automate it away altogether (there are probably moments on a wide-open freeway that you still enjoy), but parking? Forget it. If there is one aspect of being a car owner that elicits the least amount of joy, it is probably finding a place to stow that car. Luckily, Daimler and Bosch want to help with precisely that problem. The two companies have collaborated to bring autonomous technology to the practice of parking.

It takes form as an automated valet system, which debuted on Monday at the parking garage for the Mercedes-Benz Museum located in Stuttgart, Germany. All you need to do as a driver is pull up to the lot. Then, you leave your car and take a leap of faith.

Apparently, the smart parking garage features an “intelligent multi-story car park infrastructure” courtesy of Bosch. In order to take advantage of the infrastructure, however, your car will already need to have semi-autonomous capabilities (that is where Daimler comes in — it is the parent company of Mercedes-Benz). When the system is ready for public use, which is slated to happen in 2018, users will simply reserve a car by way of a smartphone app. The vehicle will quite literally come at your bidding and you can drive off at your leisure. Then, when you are done, simply park the car back in the drop-off area, and the car will drive itself back into its assigned spot.

“Sensors installed in the car park monitor the driving corridor and its surroundings and steer the vehicle,” Autocar Pro explained. “The technology on board the car performs safe driving maneuvers in response to the commands from the car park infrastructure and stops the vehicle in good time when necessary.”

For the time being, Daimler and Bosch say that this system is naught but an “extensive trial.” Even when it is ready for wider use, it will probably be both difficult and expensive to retrofit a bunch of parking garages with the sensors needed to properly guide cars to and from parking spaces. But all the same, it could herald a bright future where parking is no longer your problem.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Cars

Daimler and Robert Bosch are teaming up to bring autonomous taxis to the road

Your days of being chauffeured around may soon be at an end -- not because taxis are going anywhere, but because their drivers are. Senior executives at Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler told a German publication that the company will soon begin testing robo-taxis "in the next few months" alongside automotive supplier Robert Bosch. The two firms first began working together last year in order to develop autonomous vehicles -- now, it would appear that their partnership is yielding tangible results.

“There will be test vehicles on the streets in the coming months,” Bosch Chief Executive Volkmar Denner told Automobilwoche, though he did not provide further details. Given that Daimler is the world's largest maker of premium cars and Bosch is the largest automotive supplier, their alliance could spell trouble for competitors also looking to get into the self-driving space. As Reuters notes, ridesharing giants like Uber and Didi have been working on autonomous taxis, and Waymo is currently in the process of testing their driverless cars in Arizona and beyond -- in fact, the Alphabet subsidiary is testing cars in 25 U.S. cities.

Smart Home

Future smart homes may be autonomous, and make decisions for you

legrand autonomous home smart system

At some distant point in the future, the autonomous home could replace the smart home. And what is an autonomous home? That's where “the home or building can actually have the ability to create and make decisions without our intervention,” Manny Linhares, director of Internet of Things (IoT) strategy at Legrand, told Digital Trends. Surrendering control may not sound all that fun, but if your system knew to turn on the kitchen light at 3:00 a.m. for your nightly water run, it might prevent a few stubbed toes.

Legrand is working with companies such as Cisco and Samsung to focus on getting more interoperability between smart-home devices with its Eliot program. If your smart bed sends out the signal that you’re still in bed at 3:00 a.m., then the light has no reason to turn on.

Cars

If you stay in hotels often enough you may never need to pay for Uber again

how to delete your uber account

Everyone likes bargains and perks, especially when traveling. A new travel perk partnership with the Kaligo hotel booking service gives you Uber ride vouchers each time you reserve a room with the service and complete a hotel stay. The Starwood, Hilton, and IHG hotel chains already have partnerships with Uber, but the Kaligo program works with any U.S. hotel among the 425,000 hotels worldwide that can be booked via Kaligo.com.

Kaligo is a loyalty-based booking service. It attracts and retains customers by linking hotel stays to users' favorite loyalty programs. When you make a reservation with Kaligo, the first step is to choose which one of its loyalty program partners you want to earn rewards with. If you'd rather rack up miles with American Airlines AAdvantage or United's MileagePlus, for example, you can't choose Uber for earning rewards. But if you do choose Uber, you'll earn at least a $5 ride voucher for each completed hotel stay.