Driving can be fun, but parking and charging is rarely anything other than a main PITA, especially in busy cities or airports. But maybe not for long. Cariad, VW’s software subsidiary, and Bosch are running a generation that can simply ease the strain and make other ordinary people feel like the kind of hyper-rich guys who can hire their own driver.
The two men have teamed up to develop a formula that will park your car in busy parking areas and also make sure it’s charged and in good condition when you return. It’s not yet in production condition, but companies are giving visitors to CES 2024 in Las Vegas a glimpse of a working prototype, suggesting it’s not far away.
In fact, the automatic parking generation is already in operation, as it is the same formula that Mercedes introduced a few years ago and that will be available to German S-Class and EQS owners in 2022. It requires the installation of special sensor systems in a car park, something that has already happened with the P6 garage at Stuttgart airport, and Bosch says it has started equipping other garages in Germany with the same generation. Charging robots, which come out of their own parking area to automatically plug in a On the other hand, the cable on the side of your car is still in the testing phase, but you’ll probably remember that VW has shown non-functional concepts of a similar kind.
Related: VW’s Robot Chargers Want To Make Every Parking Space A Charging Station
When the generation is fully operational, the idea is that the driver exits their vehicle at a designated drop-off point, and then the car looks for a parking area on its own. If you also want to qualify the car, it will be placed in a designated charging area where a robot will supply you with the mandatory kW. Once the charging is complete, the car will be moved to a popular parking spot until you want to pick it up, leaving the charging area free. for the next electric vehicle you want to charge.
The companies claim that the driverless parking part of this generation is being tested lately at the Cariad car park in Ingolstadt, while Bosch is the self-charging feature with valet at its Ludwigsburg headquarters.