BMW, Valeo link up on driverless parking system to challenge Mercedes

BMW and Valeo are teaming up to develop driverless parking technology, including the deployment of advanced sensors in the vehicle and infrastructure-based services.

A fully automated Level 4 parking system could appear with the introduction of BMW’s Neue Klasse platform for full-electric models in 2026, Nicolai Martin, senior vice president driver experience at BMW Group, said on a conference call Tuesday.

The service could be added later as a pay function, Martin said. It will also be available on other models in addition to the Neue Klasse vehicles, because the hardware will already be installed, he said.

Some current BMW models, including the 7 Series and iX, have the capability to perform parking maneuvers themselves, but the driver must be near the car. BMW's system that allows that function is called Parking Assistant Professional.

Mercedes-Benz became the first automaker to win approval for what is known as Automated Valet Parking, or AVP, working with Robert Bosch, in the Stuttgart, Germany, airport. Its system is known as Intelligent Park Pilot.

The service was enabled by a law in Germany allowing Level 4 autonomous driving, with no human involvement, in defined operating areas of public spaces. SAE Level 4 autonomy means that the car can drive itself with no human involvement under most conditions.

BMW and Valeo have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to develop the next generation of automated parking functions. The functions will build on the software stack released with the full-electric BMW iX SUV in 2021, they said. 

Valeo, a longtime supplier of parking systems to BMW, will provide sensors, an ADAS domain controller and a Level 2 software stack to the collaboration.

A powerful computing platform will host jointly developed algorithms, the companies said. Once fully developed, the system would be open to other automakers through Valeo, said Marc Vrecko, Valeo’s president comfort and driver assist systems.

Unlike the Mercedes/Bosch collaboration, which relies on infrastructure and cloud computing to create a so-called Type 2 AVP system, BMW and Valeo will focus on building a vehicle-based system, or Type 1. It could be the first of its kind when it is introduced, Martin said. 

He said Type 1 systems, though more complex than Type 2, have greater potential for wider adoption because they don’t depend on potentially uneven infrastructure development. BMW plans to have both types available, however, meaning that a car enabled for Type 1 could also use a Type 2 parking garage.

"We could create a 'handover' process if there is infrastructure we can rely on," Martin said, noting that there is an infrastructure standard being developed. "There is the ability for an additional interface that allows a vehicle to maneuver using Type 2. If that is not ready, the vehicle can maneuver on its own" using its built-in sensors and equipment, he said.

Martin said BMW had not yet determined a price for the AVP system, but he said it would not be prohibitively expensive because cars will already have all the sensors and hardware they need. He added that lidar sensors, which are costly, will not be needed because radar and cameras are sufficient for the kinds of low-speed maneuvers done in parking garages.

"We aren't talking about much more hardware costs, so we have flexibility to create an attractive price point," he said.