Mercedes-Benz driverless parking gets the nod for commercial use

Drive into a public parking garage, exit your vehicle and use a smartphone app to send it to a pre-booked parking space.

The automated valet parking service, co-developed by Mercedes and Bosch, has no need for a driver as the car drives itself to its assigned space and parks. Later, the vehicle can be summoned by the app to return to the pick-up point.

Owners of Mercedes cars fitted with the new Intelligent Park Pilot will be able to experience this convenience after it was approved for use at Stuttgart airport in Germany.

It is the world’s first highly automated driverless parking function and a milestone on the way to automated driving. Creating fully autonomous cars that can drive themselves on public roads is taking longer than expected due to the complexity of traffic conditions, but a parking garage is a more controlled and low-speed environment.

“With the vehicle and infrastructure taking over driving and manoeuvring, drivers will be able to turn their attention to other things, instead of time spent looking for a parking space and manoeuvring in tight parking garages,” said a Mercedes spokesperson.

While Mercedes provides the in-car technology, Bosch provides the sensors in the parking garage that monitor the driving corridor and its surroundings and provide the information needed to guide the vehicle. This way vehicles can drive themselves up and down ramps to move between storeys in the parking garage. If the infrastructure sensors detect an obstacle, the vehicle brakes and safely comes to a stop. 

The system is initially available with S-Class and EQS models built since July 2022 equipped with the Intelligent Park Pilot 2, and will be rolled out to other Mercedes cars later.