Parking problems gone!
There are a number of things we all hate: paying taxes, root canal treatment, bikini waxes and parking. Alas we don’t have any good news on the taxation, dental or hair front. But maybe … just maybe … we will soon be able to kiss our parking woes goodbye.
That’s because a number of manufacturers are working on cars that park themselves. (No, this is not an April Fools’ joke … cars that drive themselves will also become a reality one day.)
Audi has already come up with what it terms Piloted Parking, a system fitted to the A7 that allows the vehicle to park itself – without the help of a driver. Now Volvo has followed suit, and it’s come up with a concept car, which – like the aforementioned Audi – finds and parks in a vacant space by itself, without the driver inside.
“Autonomous Parking is a concept technology that relieves the driver of the time-consuming task of finding a vacant parking space. The driver just drops the vehicle off at the entrance to the car park and then he or she picks it up in the same place later,” explains Thomas Broberg, senior safety advisor Volvo Car Group. It’s a bit like dropping off your laundry … although your car doesn’t arrive dirty and leave clean.
Like so many other things in life, a mobile phone is integral to the entire process – the driver uses an app on his or her phone to activate the Autonomous Parking and then walks away from the car. Also, the parking lot must be equipped with what is known as Vehicle 2 Infrastructure technology, a system of transmitters in the road infrastructure.
This seemingly magical process of the car parking itself then happens courtesy of a number of sensors, that localise and navigate to a free parking space. The procedure is reversed when the driver comes back to pick up the car.
Mum’s the word on when this will be available commercially; we hope it’s soon.
Text: Charleen Clarke