Status: 11/30/2022 2:06 p.m
The fully automated, driverless parking developed by Mercedes-Benz and Bosch can go into series production. The Federal Motor Transport Authority has issued the world’s first approval for this. But the field of application is limited.
The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has issued the first permit for a driverless parking vehicle. The manufacturer Mercedes-Benz received the permit, as the authority announced today in Flensburg. This is the first release for series operation worldwide.
Second highest level of autonomous driving
It is about a parking system with which a car can be parked in a parking garage – without a driver. This corresponds to a function with driver assistance systems according to Level 4, the second highest level of autonomous driving.
“With this system, we are achieving another building block on the way to autonomous driving,” explained the KBA. The authority is at the same time the driver of the development and the guardian of the associated high security requirements for the systems.
For new S-Class and EQS models only
Driverless parking will initially only be used in the P6 car park at Stuttgart Airport with new Mercedes S-Class vehicles and their electric counterpart EQS. Using a smartphone app, they should be able to send their car to a pre-booked parking space and pick it up again when they come back. The aim is to put the application into operation before the end of this year.
In the future, normal cars will also be on the road in the parking garage. So that the driverless cars don’t get in each other’s way and everything else works, there are a lot of sensors from Bosch in the parking garage. This monitors the driving corridor and its surroundings and provides the driverless cars with the necessary information for control. The technology in the vehicle then translates this into driving manoeuvres. The cars should be able to drive up and down ramps, change floors and recognize obstacles.
Several hundred parking garages are to be added
“Our goal is to equip more parking garages with the appropriate infrastructure technology in the future – in the coming years there should already be several hundred worldwide,” said Markus Heyn, managing director of the Bosch supplier division. Everyday life in automated driving begins with driverless parking.
However, it was a long way before it was approved by the Federal Motor Transport Authority: Mercedes-Benz has been working on the automated driving function since 2015. Starting in 2019, driverless parking was tested with development vehicles in the parking garage of the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart.