World-first automated parking service nears

Germany’s Stuttgart airport will become home to the world’s first automated valet parking (AVP) service, allowing drivers to have their vehicles parked and collected via smartphone app.

Mercedes-Benz, Bosch and Apcoa have joined forces to establish the ground-breaking fully automated, driverless parking system at the German car-maker’s home-town airport.

The AVP system was co-developed by Bosch and Mercedes-Benz and will be trialled via a pilot program in conjunction with parking garage operator Apcoa in the P6 garage at Stuttgart airport, ahead of a broader commercial rollout of the automated parking service.

The SAE Level 4 autonomous driving technology that allows driverless and fully automated parking already exists in the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which is the world’s first production vehicle to come with the tech required for future infrastructure-based AVP.

The limousine’s new INTELLIGENT PARK PILOT option makes the vehicle capable of receiving a smartphone command to drive itself to a reserved parking space.

Meantime, Apcoa is testing barrier and payment functions of the AVP system using its ticketless and cashless APCOA FLOW digital mobility platform, while Bosch is using new camera-based video infrastructure for the first time (rather than Lidar sensors) to identify vacant parking spaces and detect obstacles or people in the driving lanes.

“With the new S-Class, it’s not just driving that’s a luxury, but parking as well,” said Mercedes-Benz AG’s head of automated driving, Dr Michael Hafner.

“With automated valet parking, Mercedes-Benz is demonstrating that driverless parking will soon be possible.”

Bosch and Mercedes-Benz received the world’s first special permit to operate AVP for selected E-Class vehicles without a safety driver in real-life, mixed-parking garage traffic at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart in July 2019.

INTELLIGENT PARK PILOT now allows the S-Class to park itself without a driver in a car park with the appropriate infrastructure – provided local legislation allows AVP, which is the first step to completely driverless Level 4 driving automation.

Initially just two spots in Stuttgart airport’s P6 parking garage will be used for testing how the S-Class sedan’s onboard systems interact with the intelligent Bosch infrastructure and Apcoa’s digital platform.

More space will be added “when driverless parking becomes standard as planned in the future and as demand increases”, says Bosch.

To facilitate the new one-touch parking function, a spacious drop-off and pick-up area will be located near the entrance to the P6 parking garage, allowing AVP users to make their way to the terminal and check in, while their S-Class parks itself.

A dedicated control centre in the parking garage calculates the route the vehicles need to take to reach an available space and the Bosch cameras allow cars to drive themselves around the parking garage – even between different storeys via narrow ramps.

If the cameras detect an unexpected obstacle, the vehicle performs an emergency stop.

“Automated valet parking really enhances our passengers’ comfort and convenience and saves them time, especially when they’re in a hurry and just want to drop their car off quickly at the airport,” said Stuttgart airport spokesman Walter Schoefer.

As Europe’s largest parking garage operator with about 1.5 million individual parking spaces at over 9500 locations in 13 European countries, Apcoa wants to expand driverless parking in real-life, mixed-parking garage traffic by equipping more car parks with Bosch infrastructure.

It says it could accommodate up to 20 per cent more vehicles by increasing the availability of AVP services, which are “especially suitable for narrow, remote and therefore unattractive parking areas that people would otherwise avoid”.