What's the news?
Hyundai and Kia have come up with a system that allows electric cars to autonomously move themselves in car parks, to prevent frustrating delays caused by waiting for a charging station to become free. The Korean conglomerate has called this technology the Automated Valet Parking System (AVPS).
AVPS relocates fully charged vehicles from charging stations to parking bays, allowing other waiting vehicles to power up from the mains. AVPS works on a smartphone, so the owner of the Hyundai/Kia can send a command to the car and it will automatically cruise to a vacant, wireless charging station (yes, inductive charging will be the future of charging cars).
Once it has topped up its battery pack, it will then quietly whisper its way back to an empty parking space, allowing other electric cars to use the relevant facilities. But don't worry about the Hyundai/Kia owner not knowing where their car now is in the parking garage - instead, AVPS brings the car to the driver's location, once another command is sent via smartphone.
For AVPS to work, there needs to be continuous communication between the vehicle, the parking facility, the charging system and the driver, so some infrastructure development will be needed to ensure systems like AVPS function smoothly. However, Hyundai and Kia are both committed to launching a level 4 autonomous vehicle, sometime in the year 2025, with fully autonomous cars predicted by 2030.
Anything else?
You can watch a video of AVPS in action, right here.
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