Automated valet parking approved at Stuttgart Airport

Approval from Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority makes the SAE Level 4 system the world’s first to be authorised for commercial use.

“It will be with driverless parking that everyday automated driving will start,” said Dr Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector. “From the outset, Bosch has taken the approach of making the infrastructure in parking garages intelligent. Accordingly, we have set standards in this area. In the future, our aim is to equip more and more parking garages with the necessary infrastructure technology – we plan to do several hundred of them worldwide in the next few years.”

Owners of Mercedes S-Class and EQS models built since July 2022 whose vehicle features the INTELLIGENT PARK PILOT² service as part of ‘Mercedes me connect’ will be able to use the function at P6.

To take advantage of the service, motorists use the Mercedes me app to book a parking space at P6 and then leave their vehicle in a predetermined drop-off area. Once passengers have exited the vehicle, the app starts the parking manoeuvre. Drivers can then use the app to summon the vehicle when they are back at P6.

Bosch sensors in the car park monitor the driving corridor and its surroundings and provide the information needed to guide the vehicle. The technology in the vehicle converts the information it receives from the infrastructure into driving manoeuvres. This way, vehicles can drive themselves up and down ramps to move between levels.  The vehicle brakes and comes to a stop when infrastructure sensors detect an obstacle and continues its journey when safe to do so.

Commenting on the development, Thatcham Research chief research strategy officer Matthew Avery said: “Since the car is doing all the unsupervised driving, the Intelligent Park Pilot function effectively delivers full ‘L4’ Automation for the first time anywhere in the world.

“It’s also an application that many drivers will appreciate. Parking can be stressful and accounts for around a quarter of crashes in the UK.

"This is good news for the adoption of Automated Driving technology, as it demonstrates a relatively safe and advantageous use case to drivers.

“However, there needs to be clarity for the UK insurance market since the carmaker will be liable if there’s a collision. So, whilst insurers will initially settle claims, they will want clear subrogation channels with carmakers, and this is yet to be defined in the UK market.”