Bosch Introduces Automated Vehicle Tech At 2014 CES; Park Your Car With The Swipe Of A Smartphone

Bosch announced on Monday that it has developed a technology that allows drivers to park their cars remotely via a smartphone app. The German manufacturer discussed automated parking during a presentation at the 2014 International CES in Las Vegas.

Driverless cars will eventually become a reality, but technology that assists drivers with specific tasks, like parking, will roll out first, Bosch Chairman Werner Struth said. A step-by-step rollout will allow manufacturers, lawmakers and consumers to slowly adapt to autonomous vehicle tech, Struth said.

Like many automotive and technological firms worldwide, Bosch is working on autonomous vehicle safety features like parking assistance, in addition to collision avoidance and emergency braking. Roughly two-thirds of the German manufacturer’s business comes from the automotive sector.

With the proper Bosch hardware installed on a vehicle, the app will allow users to park a car simply by swiping a virtual version of their car on the smartphone. Bosch says the combination of sensors, hardware and software is capable of parking a car as well as starting it up to pull out of a spot.

Bosch only mentioned the car-parking app during Monday’s presentation, and did not say when it would be available to consumers. Struth said that the manufacturer would demonstrate the driverless tech during a presentation tomorrow.

As far as car tech is concerned, Bosch’s Struth also discussed natural language voice processing to input destinations for driving directions and make phone calls hands-free. Bosch posted a video in September that mentioned self-parking cars, noting the average person spends one day of his/her life doing the task.

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