aiMotive and Parkopedia are giving car manufacturers access to an automated parking navigation platform that does not require additional infrastructure to be installed in parking facilities.
This scalable technology is designed to minimise parking hassles for drivers and enable autonomous parking in all locations.
The platform can provide navigational support for drivers within indoor and outdoor parking facilities by using aiMotive’s ‘perception technology’ alongside localisation information provided by Parkopedia’s indoor mapping service.
Indoor facilities such as underground and multi-story carparks are often unable to accurately access GPS, as the line of sight to satellites is blocked. Alternative localisation is therefore required to maintain navigation standards and enable future services.
Thanks to this partnership, drivers will be able to gain indoor turn-by-turn directions to selected parking locations. This could include a pre-booked parking space, an electric vehicle charging point, or the closest available parking space to a desired destination or exit point.
Brian Holt, CTO at Parkopedia, said:We are delighted to partner with aiMotive to deliver cost-effective and innovative parking solutions of the future. Every car journey begins and ends with parking, and, as such, it remains a critical element of in-car navigation systems to reach final destinations.
Unfortunately, the current navigation experience ends at the entrance to parking facilities, leaving drivers short of their intended end destination. By combining aiMotive’s technology with our HD indoor maps, we are able to extend and enhance the navigation experience and provide the bridge to autonomous parking and its associated benefits in the future.
The technology will also enable autonomous parking within any parking facility without the installing additional hardware at the location.
Type 1 Automated Valet Parking (AVP) is likely to be the first SAE Level 4 automation product made publicly available to drivers due to the lower risks associated with a constrained environment and low driving speeds.
However, such in-vehicle technology requires consistent and reliable global localisation and navigation.
Parkopedia says it is able to provide this requirement by using advanced robotics techniques combined with data from sensors that are already present on most connected vehicles and existing infrastructure.
Gábor Pongrácz, SVP of aiDrive, said:aiMotive strives to develop truly scalable and innovative automated driving software and related tooling. Our parking solution also follows that mindset. Relying only on in-house-developed vehicle-based intelligence and sparse HD maps, Parkopedia is a natural partner to us. The maps provided by Parkopedia were precise and detailed enough to be used in our AVP solution for localisation and path planning right away. Jointly, we can greatly accelerate the adoption of AVP technologies, being able to deploy to any facility that is mapped.
