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Innovation

Volvo car parks itself with no driver inside

Volvo is moving forward with its autonomous car technology.
Written by Tyler Falk, Contributor

There are plenty of apps out there that make the onerous task of finding parking a little easier. But what if your car just did the parking for you while you went about your business?

Volvo has developed a concept car that parks in a vacant spot all by itself. It's not hands-free, it's driver-free.

"Autonomous Parking is a concept technology that relieves the driver of the time-consuming task of finding a vacant parking space. The driver just drops the vehicle off at the entrance to the car park and picks it up in the same place later," said Thomas Broberg, a senior safety advisor at Volvo Car Group, in a press release.

Here's how it works, in video form:

The car would use sensors in the road to find an available parking space in a parking lot. Of course, this would only work in a special parking lot equipped with the necessary sensors. But by the time the technology is fully developed maybe road sensors will be commonplace.

"The autonomous parking and platooning technologies are still being developed. However, we will take the first steps towards our leadership aim by introducing the first features with autonomous steering in the all-new Volvo XC90, which will be revealed at the end of 2014," said Broberg.

Photo: Volvo

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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