Bosch & APCOA to roll-out Automated Valet Parking Technology Across Germany

Bosch and APCOA have announced plans to install automated valet parking technology in 15 further parking garages in Germany. It follows the approval of driverless SAE Level 4 parking for commercial use at Stuttgart airport.

The technology will soon be available in selected parking garages in cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Munich.

The APCOA FLOW platform enables contactless and cashless parking without a ticket.

Germany is one of the few countries to have already passed the Level 4 legislation that creates a framework for systems such as automated valet parking.

Other countries, such as France, are poised to follow.

Bosch’s modular system will allow the number of parking spaces featuring the infrastructure technology to be quickly expanded to up to 200 parking bays at each of the 15 locations.

The agreement signed by Bosch and APCOA is the first step toward a worldwide market launch.

Dr. Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector, says: “We will expand the number of such parking spaces based on the expected ramp-up of vehicles featuring automated valet parking. Our experience with charge spots for electric vehicles shows us how important it is for infrastructure growth to keep pace with the technology. Together with our partner APCOA, we are now making sure that this will be the case for automated valet parking,” 

 “Germany is only the beginning – we’re expecting to soon be able to gradually roll out automated valet parking in other countries around the world as well, once the corresponding laws have been passed,” adds Claudia Barthle, who heads up global software and service sales in the Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division at Bosch and is responsible for the partnership with APCOA.

Frank van der Sant, a member of the board of management and chief commercial officer of APCOA PARKING Group, comments: “With the automated valet parking solution, we can offer our parking customers a whole new level of convenience. This function is especially advantageous at locations where time is an issue, such as airports, concert halls, event locations, and trade fair locations. In other words, our location at Stuttgart airport is only the beginning.”

In 2020, Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, and APCOA made the highly automated and driverless parking service available at Stuttgart airport, where they worked on the Level 4 system’s first commercial use.