RSS Official: BMW to show car that can park itself in a multi-story garage at CES

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Filed under: Concept Cars, CES, Technology, Hatchback, BMW, Electric, Smartphone

Automatic parking systems are something of a novelty, in their present form. Sure, modern parallel parking systems work well enough. And they're great if you lack the special awareness required to complete such a task. But frankly, how often is the average owner of such a system in a position to use it? Perpendicular parking systems, meanwhile, are basically an admission that you don't really deserve a driver's license.

Novelties these systems may be, but they promise a future where we won't even need to be behind the wheel to park our cars. BMW is going to deliver a vision of that future at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show with the Remote Valet Parking Assistant, a smartwatch-activated system that takes the driver out of the parking equation and replaces them with an advanced collision avoidance system.

Fitted to an i3 for CES, the BMW system relies on four laser scanners to map the surrounding environment and identify obstacles. Combined with a digital site plan for a building, the company claims its car can navigate its way to an open parking spot, moving around even unexpected obstacles like improperly parked cars. The car's owner can step out of the vehicle at the intended destination, and then tap the smartwatch app for vehicle parking and retrieval.

BMW claims this system will allow more precise control than GPS, particularly in something like a multi-story parking deck. While it's an intriguing route with autonomous technology, we wonder how much is required of these digital site plans.

There are more practical uses of this technology, beyond valet parking. According to BMW, the collision-avoidance technology can aid a driver in low-light conditions, automatically braking the car for its driver when an obstruction is detected.

Look for more on BMW's Remote Valet Parking system as the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show approaches. Until then, scroll down for the full press release.

Continue reading BMW to show car that can park itself in a multi-story garage at CES

BMW to show car that can park itself in a multi-story garage at CES originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Dec 2014 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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