Bosch develops an automated valet parking system with e. Go

Bosch has launched an automated valet service in the town of Aachen in Germany. The service has been developed along with e.Go, a start-up which manufactures electric cars, and will be offered by the end of the year at the new parking garage on the RWTH Aachen university campus.

Bosch will handle the infrastructure technology in the parking garage and will work with e.GO to integrate the start-up's vehicles into the automatic valet parking service. The first stage will see automated valet parking implemented using up to 12 of e.GO's Life electric cars. These cars are part of e.GO's fleet, which the company makes available to its workforce for business trips and will now be used to present this technology. In the second stage, Bosch and e.GO aim to use automated valet parking technology to improve parking-space utilization in the parking garage. Bosch estimates that this automated valet parking tech will let up to 50 percent more cars fit into an existing parking space.

This system works by drivers leaving their car in a drop-off area at the entrance to the parking garage. They then instruct the car, via a smartphone app, to find a vacant space in the garage. Drivers are not needed to monitor the entire procedure and can also instruct the car to meet them at a designated pick-up point. Sensors in the parking garage monitor the driving corridor and its surroundings and provide the information needed to guide the vehicle. The technology in the car converts the commands from the infrastructure already in place into driving manoeuvres and stops the vehicle in the event of any obstacles or if people cross its path.

This is Bosch's second automated valet parking project. The first project was presented at Mercedes-Benz Museum parking garage in Stuttgart. Mercedes is also the pilot partner for this research and the two companies are working together to understand how users interact with driverless vehicles and how well such vehicles are received by the general public. They are in the process of organising an 'experienc tour' where interested guests will be accompanied on a ride in a driverless car in the Mercedes-Benz museum parking garage, while the technology is explained and questions are answered.

This project is another instance of autonomous driving tech working in conjunction with new mobility ideas to provide sustainable solutions to issues that have plagued authorities and car owners for some time now.