The car that parks itself

MIDLANDS car maker Jaguar Land Rover has been showing off a vehicle which can park itself as part of a programme to develop the autonomous and connected cars of the future.

The firm’s ‘self-driving valet’ means a car can find a parking space by itself and manoeuvre into it without any driver input.

Jaguar Land Rover was showcasing the technology as part of the UK Autodrive programme, which has already seen autonomous and connected vehicles tested on public roads in Coventry.

Last week the trials took to the public roads and car parks of Milton Keynes to show how connected and autonomous vehicles could make the search for parking spaces much easier in future.

Project partners Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) demonstrated how cars could communi- cate with each other to notify drivers of available parking spaces – without the need for any additional parking bay sensors.

Upon entering the car park, the cars get an updated heat map showing availability, while realtime updates from other connected cars show spaces filling and becoming vacant.

Joerg Schlinkheider, Jaguar Land Rover chief engineer, automated driving, said: “We’re investing heavily in automated technologies to make our customers’ lives safer and more convenient.

“Reducing the everyday stresses of driving – like squeezing into a tight parking place – means that we can all focus on the more enjoyable aspects of our cars.”

As well as demonstrating potential future parking solutions, the three car manufacturers also carried out their first public road trials of two connected car safety features.

The first involved an Emergency Vehicle Warning (EVW) system, which alerts drivers when an emergency vehicle is approaching. The second trial demonstrated an Electronic Emergency Brake Light (EEBL) feature which gives a warning when another connected car further up the road brakes heavily.