Volvo Car Group demonstrates the ingenious self-parking car
Volvo Car Group has developed an ingenious concept for autonomous parking.
The concept car finds and parks in a vacant space by itself, without the driver
inside. The smart, driverless car also interacts safely and smoothly with other
cars and pedestrians in the car park.
"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 picks it up in the
same place later," says Thomas Broberg, Senior Safety Advisor Volvo Car
Group.
Vehicle 2 Infrastructure technology, in other words transmitters in the
road infrastructure, informs the driver when the service is available. The
driver uses a mobile phone application to activate the Autonomous Parking and
then walks away from the car.
The vehicle uses sensors to localise and navigate to a free parking space.
The procedure is reversed when the driver comes back to pick up the car.
Interacts with other vehicles and road users
Combining autonomous driving with detection and auto brake for other
objects makes it possible for the car to interact safely with other cars and
pedestrians in the car park. Speed and braking are adapted for smooth
integration in the parking environment.
"Our approach is based on the principle that autonomously driven cars
must be able to move safely in environments with non-autonomous vehicles and
unprotected road users," says Thomas Broberg.
Pioneering autonomous technologies
Volvo Car Group's aim is to gain leadership in the field of autonomous
driving by moving beyond concepts and actually delivering pioneering
technologies that will reach the customers. The Autonomous Parking concept is
one of several development projects in this field.
Volvo Cars has also been the only participating car manufacturer in the
SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project, which was successfully
completed in 2012. The project involved seven European partners. It is the only
one of its kind to focus on technology that can be implemented on conventional
highways on which platooned traffic operates in a mixed environment with other
road users.
The SARTRE platoon included a lead truck followed by four Volvos driven
autonomously at speeds of up to 90 km/h - in some cases with no more than a
four-meter gap between the vehicles.
Autonomous steering in the next XC90
"The autonomous parking and platooning technologies are still being
developed. However, we will take the first steps towards our leadership aim by
introducing the first features with autonomous steering in the all-new Volvo
XC90, which will be revealed at the end of 2014," concludes Thomas
Broberg.