Stuttgart airport to launch automated and driverless parking

Stuttgart Airport is to introduce an automated valet parking (AVP) service with the help of Apcoa, Bosch, and Mercedes-Benz.

The three companies are currently working together on developing the system and it will first be tested using an S-Class luxury saloon.

The S-Class is already capable of receiving a smartphone command to drive itself to a reserved parking space.

The P6 parking garage at Stuttgart airport will serve as the pilot for the planned commercial AVP.

Here, the companies will test how the vehicle technology onboard the S-Class interacts with the Bosch infrastructure and APCOA FLOW, the digital platform provided by the parking garage operator Apcoa.

A spacious drop-off and pick-up area will be set up directly behind the entrance to the P6 parking garage, giving AVP users a convenient place to leave their vehicles.

As they make their way to the terminal and check in, their S-Class will park itself in the basement, guided by information from the infrastructure technology.

For the test phase that is about to start, P6 will initially have two spaces available for self-parking vehicles.

More spaces will be added when driverless parking becomes standard as planned in the future and as demand increases.

In the future, Bosch’s aim is to equip more and more parking garages with AVP infrastructure technology.

As Europe’s largest parking garage operator, Apcoa also has a strategic interest in offering innovative premium services like AVP in more of its parking garages.

The company manages approximately 1.5 million individual parking spaces at over 9,500 locations in 13 European countries.

By increasing the availability of driverless and fully automated parking services, Apcoa said the same amount of space could accommodate up to 20% more vehicles.