Autonomous parking is not new. Every year, we see a new concept that claims to use driverless technology to transport and store cars without human intervention, putting valets out of work entirely. But Cariad, a software company owned by Volkswagen, and supplier Bosch hope to revive the idea by adding automatic charging capabilities for electric vehicles.

The two German companies envisage building a system that "drivelessly guides electric vehicles to vacant parking spaces equipped with charging points, where charging robots automatically charge them." After charging is completed, the car will automatically move to another unmanned parking space, so that the charging robot can be free to receive another electric car.

Bosch and Cariad are currently testing the technology at two car parks in Germany: Cariad’s employee car park in Ingolstadt and Bosch’s development car park in Ludwigsburg.

Bosch has been working on autonomous parking technology for many years. Cariad, Volkswagen's in-house software supplier, has hit a number of hurdles recently, including layoffs, cost-cutting and restructuring.

Both companies have tested similar features in the past. Bosch has partnered with Mercedes-Benz to build a parking lot in Germany equipped with a self-driving system to help guide cars in and out of vacant parking spaces. Likewise, Volkswagen has been trying to implement robotic electric vehicle charging under various guises since at least 2019. A spokesperson confirmed that the technology unveiled today is not based on previous Volkswagen prototypes.

Bosch says the automation technology can solve a range of problems that currently plague the EV charging experience - namely long queues at charge points, congestion fees for disconnecting power cords too late and manually operating power cords.

"By solving these challenges, automated valet charging significantly improves the convenience of charging electric vehicles for customers. In addition, the technology brings a range of benefits to car manufacturers, charge point operators, parking operators and energy suppliers. Advantage."

But this plan may also face some challenges, such as finding the right communication standards between the vehicle and the charging robot, and maintaining the uptime of the robot.