Automated Valet Parking: Driverless to the Parking Space

Valet parking service, offered, for example, by some hotel chains, restaurants, or at airports, is much more comfortable. Driving the car to the gate, get out, press the car key into the hand of the available staff and continue walking. This luxury in a significantly modernized form, could soon benefit a great many. With the "Automated Valet Parking" system from ZF, a new solution for automated, driverless parking, the car is sent independently to a parking lot in the parking garage via a cell phone app where it will be parked without a driver.

"With our system, we can save the driver a lot of time," said Calvin Xing, Vice President Electronics Engineering China at ZF. This includes on the way back as well as the way there because the driver can send another cell phone command to return his car and the vehicle is chauffeured again independently from the parking lot to the driver.

The cost-efficient solution from ZF is based on the "Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping" (vSLAM) technology, which enables centimeter-accurate localization and real-time map generation. In doing so, data from on-board and environmental sensors are used to create a map of the environment and to determine the position and direction of movement of the vehicle within it. Sensors also scan the surroundings to detect parking spaces and obstacles such as pillars or other vehicles. The sensor set is mainly based on a front camera, a front radar, four surrounding cameras, and twelve ultrasonic sensors and is scalable with more advanced sensors as well as connectivity.

ZF's automated valet parking solution is a good example of how the company is driving vehicle intelligence and responding flexibly to the requirements of the respective market. First, Chinese customers will send their car by cell phone to search for parking spaces. ZF's solution will go into volume production at a Chinese car manufacturer. "This meets the demand of local customers for comfortable, automated functions," said Xing. However, stress in the search for parking spaces is not only widespread in China. Therefore, ZF assumes that the cost-efficient system is also an attractive solution for other markets and that customers around the world will soon be able to use the comfort of automated valet parking.