BMW announced quite some time ago that they will be introducing a new self-parking car at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and they were true to their word. The venue is currently taking place and the Germans are showing us exactly what their new tech is capable of.
With the new technology, cars from BMW, this time exemplified by an i3, can basically drive themselves without you in them and do all sorts of things. Thanks to what the company calls ‘Vision Zero’, cars can avoid crashing into walls and other cars around.
In the new research vehicle – a BMW i3 – an innovative laser sensor system scans the entire area around the vehicle. In a potential collision situation, the system warns the driver and, if necessary, automatically initiates braking. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though.
For example, the multistory parking is now done easier than ever. Four laser scanners monitor the entire area around the research vehicle, creating a virtual image of the environment. Then, using this data, the i3 we see in the video below can drive itself to a vacant spot and park itself. That includes both bay parking and parallel parking.
The best bit is that when you want to leave, you can actually summon the car to the point where you left it initially using an app on your phone or smartwatch.
It’s all pretty baffling to watch and will surely be implemented by most manufacturers in the future. That way, we can all imagine how the future parking lots of shopping centers will look like, with tens of cars driving themselves around, looking for spaces, while we’re all inside, having a good time.
Of course, we still have to wait a little longer until we actually get to see this kind of technology in production but things are looking up. A similar system will be introduced on the upcoming 7 Series, but it won’t be exactly the same, though.
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