BETTER PARTSThis VW parked himself
Wolfsburg, 23 June 2015
The so-called " valet parking " is a fine thing: It stops in front of a restaurant, a service employees are the key and go in peace to eat while the genie ranks the car to an open space. And also brings back when you leave the restaurant. In the US, this amenity is quite common in Germany but not very often: Which one of us are really likes his car keys in the hand of a stranger?
Car examined by itself a place
But in a few years this type of service parking for granted could be. Namely, if you simply put his car pilot park and via mobile app " Park yourself! " commands. The car purrs then by itself going to look for a suitable space and also comes back to the starting when ordered back by app. In this scenario, Volkswagen is researching the project " V - Charge" for four years. " V - Charge" stands for " Automated Valet parking and charging for e-mobility " ?? and designating a special feature: If the car is an electric car, he seeks by itself also a free load space, filled by induction technology its current memory ( similar to an electric toothbrush ), acknowledges the charging station for the next electric car and looks for a free parking until it is picked up again.
EU joint project
" V - Charge" is an EU collaborative project in which work together under the auspices of the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in addition to VW and Bosch and the universities Braunschweig, Parma and Oxford. Technology support is an e - Golf, which is packed full of near-series sensor and camera technology. These include four wide-angle cameras, two 3D cameras, twelve ultrasonic sensors and the so-called " Car2X " technology ?? which is required for communication with the charging infrastructure and other electric cars. All together form a network of technical senses which allows the Golf to autonomously move.
Start with Tablet, Smartphone or-watch
That sounds fantastic good in theory, but how does it work in practice? For the viewer, it is unusual at first. We see the future of technology at a demonstration at the Mobile Life Campus of VW in Wolfsburg. Wojciech Derendarz, the project manager of VW - side, the ride of the E - Golf will start an app on his tablet PC, but it would also be a smart phone or a SmartWatch possible. Almost silently sits down the Stromer in motion and rolls determined down the road, on the way to three hundred yards distant parking lot of the terrain.
Card must be produced
As the infrastructure of the car park or parking garage looks like and where exactly roadways and parking lots are located, the car of a digital map with fixed marking points takes. The map is generated prior to the first use and stored on an external server or in the vehicle. " A GPS system works in parking garages usually not ," explains Lutz Young, Head of Volkswagen Group Research driver assistance systems. Therefore, you have chosen the card solution.
Brake for pedestrians
With a maximum of ten km / h Golf travels straight. A bit scary, it is already, the glide completely driverless car to see. Every now and then move the steering wheel in the interior back and forth in order based on the information from the sensors and cameras gently the track correct. Twice bends the autonomous car to a corner of the house and then have to cope with a task whose solution all of us interested: right suddenly comes a passerby who then tagging along in front of the car. The Golf brakes immediately and then drive the man in sufficient distance behind. For other road users and vehicles of golf course respond adequately.
Apart from a few centimeters exactly
We see how the compact car arrives in the parking lot and a free gap searches that he completely automatically entert backwards. Then he sits down again moving towards charging station that has an induction plate in the bottom. Is the electric car directly above ( the system can be up to a few centimeters to park exactly ), the plate toward its counterpart lifts the car floor and the charging starts.
After 2020 used in practice?
There remains the question of when we can get rid of our car so beautiful and comfortable fetch again. " The full scenario might be possible after 2020 ," estimates Lutz boy. As continuous tests would prove in the research project, V - batch but already fully functional. ( hd )