Technology Leading to Fully Automated Driving in the Future

Daimler, the German automotive company that owns Mercedes-Benz, Smart, and Fuso, and Bosch have jointly announced their commencement of tests for automated parking and unparking via car2go, Daimler's on-demand car-sharing service operating in Europe.

In this test, users will reserve a car via the car2go website and move to a waiting area. The vehicle will then start its engine and autonomously drive to the user's location without a driver. The process is similar for returns: users leave the car in the designated return zone and operate it via smartphone, after which the car will automatically navigate to an available parking space.

Bosch is developing the parking infrastructure, including sensors to detect empty spaces, cameras, and communication systems. Concurrently, a dedicated controller will be installed in the vehicle, analyzing information from the infrastructure and the car's onboard computer to ensure safe and reliable movement.

A Daimler executive stated, "By conducting tests in collaboration with Bosch, we will develop a fully automated parking service based on infrastructure. Beyond this, we are looking towards fully autonomous driving, or in this specific case, automated parking."

Bosch also commented, "We believe fully autonomous parking will be commercialized before fully autonomous driving. Because it operates at low speeds and the infrastructure is deployed within parking lots, development is likely to progress rapidly."