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BMW's Remote Valet Parking Assistant
BMW is as frustrated with finding parking as you are. So, BMW will be introducing its Remote Valet Parking Assistant.
(BMW's Remote Valet Parking Assistant)
Installed in a converted i3 electric car, BMW says the system will allow a car to drive itself into a multi-story garage and park itself without any human intervention.The driver can dispatch the car with commands from a smartwatch. The car then uses onboard sensors and stored plans for the building to navigate itself to a space while its owner goes on his or her way.
Once parked, the car automatically locks itself and waits for a scheduled pick up time or voice command. The car then estimates how long it will take to reach the meeting point in order to arrive on time.
Frank Herbert briefly refers to a robotic parking garage in his 1977 novel The Dosadi Experiment and identifies a key element that makes it work:
He activated the grapple tracks. The skitter jerked into motion, danced sideways, and slid smoothly down the driveway to the street.
(Read more about grapple tracks)
The 2004 movie I, Robot also featured a very well-drawn automated parking garage. Will Smith is shown below "parking" his futuristic Audi.
(Robot parking garage from iRobot movie)
In his 1941 novel Methuselah's Children, Robert Heinlein wrote about an automated parking garage called a robopark.
Via Digital Trends.
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