Self-parking cars without drivers may soon come to a shopping mall parking lot near you, and this week, Volvo provided a video highlighting the developing technology. The next-generation Volvo XC90 will debut with autonomous steering technology when it is revealed at the end of the 2014 calendar year, but before then, Volvo is using a V40 four-door hatch to showcase technology that one day may allow for a driver-less car to park itself in a busy shopping mall parking lot.
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Volvo says that with the autonomous parking "concept technology," the driver can drop off the vehicle at the entrance of a parking lot, tell the car to park itself using a cell phone application, let the car find a space and park itself, and then pick up the car at the parking lot entrance later on.
"In the future, we will continue to take incremental steps towards a totally self-parking car," says Volvo active safety engineer Mikael Thor, "and I believe that a totally self-parking car might arrive sooner than you think."
A self-parking car would have to deal with distracted pedestrians walking to their vehicles as well as impatient drivers who may attempt to quickly take parking spaces the Volvo was preparing to enter. Will we see a self-parking car soon? That's not clear, but Volvo isn't the only automaker researching the technology. Audi is working on a "piloted driving" system that can move itself into and out of parking spaces.
As for the three-row XC90 crossover, Volvo says the next-generation model will finally be revealed at the end of 2014, offering autonomous steering. It's a controversial feature, but one that may get the XC90 back on shopping lists with other luxury SUVs.
Source: Volvo
I’ve come a long way since I drove sugar packets across restaurant tables as a kid, pretending they were cars. With more than 17 years of experience, I'm passionate about demystifying the new car market for shoppers and enthusiasts. My expertise comes from thoughtfully reviewing countless vehicles across the automotive spectrum. The greatest thrill I get isn’t just from behind the wheel of an exotic car but from a well-executed car that’s affordable, entertaining, and well-made. Since about the time I learned to walk I’ve been fascinated by cars of all shapes and sizes, but it wasn’t until I struggled through a summer high school class at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design that I realized writing was my ticket into the automotive industry. My drive to high school was magical, taking me through a beautiful and winding canyon; I've never lost the excited feeling some 16-year-olds get when they first set out on the road. The automotive industry, singing, and writing have always been my passions, but because no one seeks a writer who sings about the automotive industry, I honed my writing and editing skills at UC Irvine (zot zot!), serving as an editor of the official campus newspaper and writing stories as a literary journalism major. At USC, I developed a much greater appreciation for broadcast journalists and became acquainted with copy editing rules such as why the Oxford comma is so important. Though my beloved 1996 Audi A4 didn’t survive my college years, my career with MotorTrend did. I started at the company in 2007 building articles for motorcycle magazines, soon transitioning to writing news posts for MotorTrend’s budding online department. I spent some valuable time in the copy editing department, as an online news director, and as a senior production editor. Today, MotorTrend keeps me busy as the Buyer's Guide Director. Not everyone has a career centered on one of their passions, and I remind myself all the time how lucky I am.
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