Ford invented an automated valet that can charge, wash and park a car

Imagine that tomorrow you can leave your car at the entrance of a parking lot to retrieve it several hours or days later and that during this time, alone and in complete autonomy, it will be parked, recharged and washed, no longer under science fiction. This scenario, Ford imagined it and is now demonstrating it.

Whether at the airport, in a stadium or in a city center, automatic parking makes it possible to gain efficiency with contactless entry, exit and payments. With this solution, drivers will no longer have to worry about searching for an available space for long minutes. Ford even estimates that such a service could allow up to 20% of additional vehicles to be parked in a car park, without damaging them and without its occupants having to open their door.

Have a package delivered to the trunk of your car

To achieve such a result, Ford has partnered with several equipment manufacturers, including Bosch, so that the vehicle can automatically be directed to a space left free and then park there. For the moment, this technology is still in the development stage and requires the installation of a whole bunch of sensors in the car park in order to establish communication between vehicles and infrastructure (V2I). Recall that Bosch has been working since 2015 on technologies for autonomous parking and intelligent management of parking spaces.

And since a connected car could park itself, it could also be sent, remotely, to a dedicated car wash or charging station, in order to come out of the car park clean and fully charged. Likewise, it would be possible to have a package delivered directly to its safe, if it is defined as a drop-off point. For the car owner, all these commands would be directly executable from theapplication FordPass.