Drive into the parking garage, get out of the vehicle and send it to a prebooked parking space just by tapping in a smartphone app.
Mercedes-Benz and Robert Bosch have turned what sounds like science fiction into reality at the at the Stuttgart Airport.
Now the fine print: It’s only available to people who own Mercedes S Class and EQS vehicles built since July 2022 that are equipped with the automaker’s Intelligent Park Pilot. The S Class starts at more than 107,000 euros in Germany, and the Intelligent Park Pilot adds an additional 3,272.50 euros to the price.
The high entry price is just one of the challenges automakers such as Mercedes and BMW and suppliers such as Bosch and Continental face as they seek to make a technology that has the potential to save time and millions in damages from accidents.
Those hurdles include convincing a vastly fragmented network of parking garage operators of the benefits of driverless parking as well as a host of potential headaches such as an unmanned car that is unable find a spot while its owner is already elsewhere.