At this German garage, your car will park itself

Mat Gallagher jumps into a Mercedes-Benz and experiences what might be the future of vehicular valeting

- Mat Gallagher

There’s a curious sign at Stuttgart Airport for Automated Valet Parking. It’s a project developed by Mercedes in partnership with Bosch and Apcoa that allows your car to park itself in the garage, leaving you to head straight for your flight.

I visited the parking garage for myself this week and got a full demo of the process. The Intelligent Park Pilot technology required to operate the automated valet parking is currently available for seven models of Mercedes-Benz, including the Mercedes S-Class (including the LWB version), EQS, EQS SUV, EQE, EQE SUV and the new Mercedes E-Class. However, the technology required to use it has been made open source, so that other manufacturers can use it in the future.