Driving can be fun, but parking and charging is rarely anything other than a major PITA, especially in busy cities or airports. Maybe not for much longer, though. VW’s software subsidiary Cariad and Bosch are working on tech that could take the strain and make regular folk feel like the kind of hyper-wealthy types that can afford to employ their own driver.
The pair have teamed up to develop a system that will park your car for you in busy lots, and also ensure it’s charged-up and ready for your return. It’s not quite ready for production yet, but the firms are giving visitors to CES 2024 in Las Vegas a look at a working prototype, suggesting it’s not too far away.
In fact, the self-parking tech is already operational because it’s the same system that was unveiled by Mercedes a few years ago and became available to German S-Class and EQS owners in 2022. It requires special sensors to be fitted to a parking garage, which has already happened to the P6 garage at Stuttgart Airport, and Bosch says it’s begun equipping other garages in Germany with the same tech. The charging robots, which scoot out from their own parking spots to automatically plug a cable into the side of your car, on the other hand, are still in the testing stage, but you might recall that VW has shown non-functional concepts of similar tech before.
Related: VW’s Robot Chargers Want To Make Every Parking Space A Charging Station
When the technology is fully operational, the idea is that the driver will exit his vehicle at a marked drop-off point, the car then heading off to find a parking space on its own. If you also need the car charged, it will slot itself into a designated charging bay where a robot will feed it the necessary kW. Once the charging is done, the car will then automatically relocate itself to a standard parking bay until you need picking up, thereby leaving the charging space free for the next EV that needs a top-up.
The companies say the driverless parking portion of the tech is currently being trialed at Cariad’s own parking garage in Ingolstadt, while Bosch is testing the automated valet charging functionality at its site in Ludwigsburg.
