Have you ever been running late to a meeting or appointment and had to waste time trying to find a place to park? That could be a thing of the past as Volvo is taking a huge step forward in terms of innovating the way people think about driving. According to a press release sent out by the company, the newest concept car will be unveiled shortly. The new concept in question is the ability for a car to park itself.
There are many cars on the market already that offer a luxury assistant parking service for difficult jobs like backing in or parallel parking. However, these are mere toys compared to what Volvo has in mind.
The Swedish company's newest invention can navigate a parking lot, avoid pedestrians and other vehicles and find a vacant parking space to put the car in, and it can do it all without a driver. People can pull right up to the entrance of their destination, get out and with a few taps on their smartphone, send the car off into the parking lot to find a place while he or she conducts his or her business inside. When they are ready to leave, they can call for the car and it will simply reverse its parking process and greet the driver at the entrance of the building.
Of course, there's a catch. The parking lot in question needs to be equipped with Vehicle 2 Infrastructure technology. This means, in order for this service to work, it will require a little bit of participation on the part of the parking lot and its owners. As a result, Car owners won't see this technology any time soon. Volvo Senior Safety Advisor Thomas Broberg explained the system on the company's blog.
"Technologies are still being developed," he said. "However, we will take the first step 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.
