BMW is developing a car that can be parked via smartwatch


BMW is developing a remote-control valet parking system for
cars that can be operated by a smartwatch.
The sensor-filled BMW i3 car, which will be on display at
the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas in January, integrates with smartwatch
and can essentially self-park. According to the company, a driver could
activate the "Remote Valet Parking Assistant" via an app, which then
guides the vehicle to a parking spot all by itself.
The car works with the help of laser sensors that scan the
surrounding environment so it can move without running into anything. It will
work in tandem with a digital site plan, so the car has a map of the
environment, too.
The prototype BMW i3 is understandably imperfect. Previous
iterations of self-parking cars — like the one Audi showed off at CES 2013 —
worked with lasers positioned in the physical location. The BMW model requires
a map of the environment, but it seems that it still occasionally crashes
during self-park jobs. (In BMW's news release, the company said there's only a
"possibility of entirely collision-free driving.")
BMW has been working on self-driving cars for some time now.
The company tested out a "highly automated" in 2009 and again in
2011. The car manufacturer even publicly tested out a self-driving car at last
year's CES.
Other companies, like Tesla and Google, have cars with
autopilot-like features, too.
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