While self-driving cars are pretty awesome, wouldn’t it be even more awesome if you could get your car to park for you? Let’s say you’re late for an appointment but don’t want to waste time circling the parking lot looking for a spot, and instead of paying for valet service, what if you could use your smartwatch, key in a few commands, and your car will be able to look for a parking spot for you?
Well that’s something that BMW is hoping to achieve and show off. The company has recently announced that they plan on showing off their autonomous vehicle research come CES 2015 which is taking place in the early part of January next year. The car manufacturer will show off their Remote Valet Parking Assistant that can basically get the car to search for its own parking, all from the comfort of a few commands executed by your smartwatch.
This will rely on the building’s site plans which are used by the car to help navigate itself around while it searches for an empty lot. This is somewhat similar to Audi’s own technology, except that with Audi, they required a venue to be outfitted with laser scanners, while BMW’s solution will work with pretty much any structure, as long as its blueprints are available.
It is a pretty cool idea and we can’t wait to learn more come CES 2015, so if this sounds like a technology you might be interested in, do check back with us early next year for the details!