Tech making parking easier

Owners of Mercedes-Benz cars in Germany will soon find it much easier to get a parking spot in crowded city streets. Under a pilot project in Stuttgart, Germany, between the luxury marque and parts supplier, Bosch and Mercedes-Benz cars will notify each other when they find a free space. The two companies say that drivers often pass vacant spots when they’re not looking for a park and that information will be noted by the car and uploaded to help other drivers. The parking trial takes advantage of the Mercedes E-Class sedan’s sensors, which can identify parking spots large enough for the vehicle. The cars in the pilot trial can collect data about free spaces as they drive past at speeds of up to 54kph. The first phase of the trial will share information about the probability of finding a park in a particular street. The second step will include real-time information shared about the exact location and size of spots to create a digital parking map that can be displayed in the car. Sajjad Kahn, head of digital vehicle and mobility at Mercedes, says “nearly all of our Mercedes-Benz cars are connected. If a car then also has the right sensors, it's logical to try and use the data generated while driving past to help speed up the search for a parking spot.” Mercedes joins BMW in making it easier to find parking, with BMW’s ParkNow service allowing drivers to pre-book spaces in parking garages and pay for roadside spots through an app.