Accident-free parking: Bosch Home zone park assist technology makes anyone a parking expert

Business Wire

13 percent of auto accidents occur in parking lots
Home zone park assist handles repeated parking maneuvers autonomously
New Bosch system expected to be production-ready in 2019

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Parking a vehicle can sometimes turn into a real drama. More and more often, a driver’s attempt to squeeze a car into a parking space ends with dents and scratches. Approximately 13 percent of auto accidents occur in parking lots, according to Nationwide Insurance claims data.ⁱ One of the main causes is vehicles with poor visibility.

Bosch, a leading global supplier of technology products and services, is announcing its newest autonomous parking technology, Home zone park assist, which is expected to make its North American market debut by 2019.

With Home zone park assist, drivers will conveniently control the parking process by smartphone, even from outside the vehicle. The technology will guide the car, autonomously if needed, to parking spaces up to 100 meters away, where it then maneuvers the car into the space.

“Parking is a natural step on the path to fully autonomous vehicles,” said Frank Sgambati, director of marketing and product innovation for Chassis Systems Control in North America, Robert Bosch LLC. “With the expected production of this technology in 2019, Bosch continues to play an integral role in bringing autonomous vehicles to North American consumers. Home zone park assist is another example of Bosch technology that helps to reduce accidents and injuries.”

Drivers can train Bosch’s Home zone park assist themselves

Home zone park assist is a partially automated function that still requires some monitoring by the driver. It was designed for repeated parking maneuvers – for example, at home or into an assigned parking garage space. The unique aspect about the technology is that Home zone park assist learns and saves individual driving maneuvers. Once it does so, it will perform them independently; all the driver has to do is press a button.

Teaching parking maneuvers is simple as the Bosch system has to be instructed only once. The driver activates the assistant’s learning function when the car is in the desired starting position. Then, they drive the car slowly (walking pace) to a parking space no more than 100 meters away in a trial run. The system saves the starting position, destination and the route driven between them. From then on, Home zone park assist can take over parking the car from the defined starting position. Drivers can choose to remain inside the car or to control the process from outside, either using a dead man’s switch on the ignition key or via smartphone. The Bosch system is capable of learning and retrieving up to 10 different driving maneuvers for repeated parking situations.

Assistant independently detours around static obstacles

Various Bosch sensors enable Home zone park assist. The solution draws on, for example, a total of 12 ultrasonic sensors installed in the front and rear bumpers plus a stereo video camera mounted near the rear-view mirror. Instead of the stereo video camera, the solution also can use four radar sensors, one on each corner of the vehicle. Home zone park assist uses the sensors for orienting itself for the drive to and into the parking space. It also can recall any objects noted during the trial run, such as posts or trees. The system is constantly comparing the position of the car with the stored position of objects in the vehicle’s surroundings. If the sensors detect an unknown static obstacle such as a garbage can left in the car’s path, the car automatically stops. If the obstacle can be avoided by deviating slightly from the preset route, the car will steer independently around it.

While parking, the Bosch Home zone park assist system also automatically corrects for inaccuracies. Even if the driver has not left the car precisely at the saved starting position before activating Home zone park assist, the system can still maneuver effortlessly. It also is not a problem if the driver parked the car incorrectly at the end of the trial run. The reason is that the Home zone park assist technology can correct for deviations of up to six-and-a-half feet when planning its route.

In addition, Home zone park assist also is capable of pulling out of a parking space autonomously. At the mere touch of a button on a smartphone or key fob, the system brings the car automatically to the defined starting position, so that the driver can simply step in and drive off. This saves the driver from having to squeeze in or out of the vehicle when it is parked in a tight space.

Press photos: 1-CC-22113, 1-CC-22114

Related link: www.bosch-connected-parking.com

About Bosch

Having established a regional presence in 1906 in North America, the Bosch Group employs some 28,700 associates in more than 100 locations, as of April 1, 2015. In 2014, Bosch generated consolidated sales of $11.3 billion in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. For more information, visit www.boschusa.com, www.bosch.com.mx and www.bosch.ca.

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 375,000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2015). The company generated sales of $78.3 billion (70.6 billion euros) in 2015. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 440 subsidiaries and regional companies in some 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing and sales network covers some 150 countries. The basis for the company’s future growth is its innovative strength. Bosch employs 55,800 associates in research and development at 118 locations across the globe. The Bosch Group’s strategic objective is to deliver innovations for a connected life. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is “Invented for life.”

Additional information is available online at www.bosch.com, www.bosch-press.com and twitter.com/BoschPresse.

Exchange rate: 1 EUR = $1.1095

ⁱ Nationwide Insurance (https://www.nationwide.com/about-us/112012-avoid-parking-mishaps.jsp)