A driverless parking system in the parking garage of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart has been in operation since 2019. For this, the German marque, in cooperation with Bosch, uses development vehicles without human oversight in everyday operations in the parking garage.
Now, the special permit to operate a driverless parking system has been expanded, allowing commercial operation with privately owned vehicles in the P6 parking garage at Stuttgart Airport.
Gallery: Mercedes-Benz Automated Valet Parking System
The basis for the approval is a law that came into force in Germany in July 2021, which permits driverless driving in accordance with SAE Level 4 for motor vehicles – implemented in close coordination with the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) and the KBA.
Mercedes-Benz and Bosch are planning to roll out the driverless parking service in the APCOA P6 parking garage at Stuttgart Airport. Certain Mercedes S-Class and EQS models built since July 2022 that have an active Intelligent Park Pilot2 service (as part of Mercedes me connect) can avail of the service.
All they have to do is book the parking spot through the Mercedes me app in advance and drive to the pre-determined drop-off point. The system will then check if the route to the parking spot is clear and that all the other technical requirements have been satisfied. Once they do, the car owner can then leave the car behind.
The vehicle should be able to drive itself to the parking spot through the use of various Bosch sensors installed in the area. These sensors communicate with the vehicle directly, allowing a fully automated maneuver through the parking space.
In the same way, if drivers want to retrieve their vehicle from the parking spot, they can do so through the app. Once requested, the vehicle will drive itself to a predetermined pick-up point.
