A Volvo self-parking car concept is not headed for showrooms just yet but previews autonomous driving, the automaker said on Thursday.
The smartphone-enabled system finds a spot, parks itself and then later meets the driver at a predetermined location.
Volvo is pitching it as a time saver. But the automaker hasn’t said how much such technology will add to the cost of a vehicle.
“Autonomous parking is a concept technology that relieves the driver of the time-consuming task of finding a vacant parking space,” said Thomas Broberg, Volvo Car Group senior safety advisor, in a statement. “The driver just drops the vehicle off at the entrance to the car park and picks it up in the same place later.”
The setup requires Vehicle 2 Infrastructure technology or transmitters embedded in the road. The driver uses a mobile phone application to activate the autonomous parking function and then walks away from the car.
The vehicle uses sensors to navigate to a free parking space. Volvo said the driverless car interacts safely with other cars and pedestrians.
“It might arrive sooner than you think,” said a Volvo video demonstrating the new technology.
Volvo said it will debut autonomous steering, another step on the road to self-driving cars, in the next-generation Volvo XC90 in late 2014.
Click here to watch Volvo Self-Parking Car Concept