The airport of the future will not have valets, but automated valet services. Stuttgart airport's P6 parking lot now will become the first airport in the world to feature a service of this kind thanks to hometown auto giant Mercedes Benz, Bosch and Apcoa. This comes after Mercedes unveiled its latest flagship car, the S-Class, which features level 4 autonomous driving with, enabling driverless parking. Bosch is using cameras for the first time to detect lanes and obstacles. Bosch is using new cameras that can identify and understand the surroundings which are further delivered to the S-Class which can navigate itself.
The S-class will be able to park on its own at Stuttgart airport
"With the new S-Class, it's not just driving that's a luxury, but parking as well," says Dr Michael Hafner, head of automated driving at Mercedes-Benz AG.
The parking lot which is being managed by Apcoa is also testing barrier and payment functions as it is the foundation for the valet parking service. For this facility, there is a spacious drop-off area and pick-off area making it easy for users to leave their vehicles at the airport.
The autonomous valet service will use Bosch camera technology
Using this service, users will be able to tell the car to park in a certain place using an app on their smartphones. This service will leverage APCOA Flow digital mobility platform.
"We want to be the first parking garage operator to fully support and enable automated parking services based on AVP technology in one of our parking garages," says Frank van der Sant, chief commercial officer at Apcoa Parking Holdings GmbH.
