Parkopedia Wins Grant to Accelerate the Development of Autonomous Valet Parking Technology

Parkopedia, the world’s leading parking services provider, announced today that it has won a multi-million pound grant award from the Centre for Connected & Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) to accelerate the development of Autonomous Valet Parking technology.

Parkopedia leads the project consortium which includes The Centre for Vision, Speech & Signal Processing at the University of Surrey (CVSSP) and The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC).

The main focus of the project is the development of Autonomous Valet Parking technology, including indoor parking maps, which allow a driver to be dropped off in front of a multi-storey parking facility or their final destination and the vehicle then parking itself fully autonomously. Upon returning, a driver is able to summon the vehicle back using a smartphone or a smartwatch.

Richard Harrington MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy commented:

“Through these competitions, we are offering innovative businesses support to take their projects to the next level and help them achieve commercial success. The projects that we are nurturing mean that we are a step closer to securing our place as a world leader in self-driving vehicles.”

“This significant investment is a mark of the innovation that is at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy. The development of new technologies is a cornerstone of the UK’s world-class science and research and will ensure that we deliver a Britain fit for the future by creating jobs and the skills needed to succeed.”

Brian Holt, Head of Autonomous Driving at Parkopedia, added, “Autonomous Valet Parking will be one of the first fully autonomous features available to the general public. Parkopedia is uniquely positioned to provide the full range of parking services including the detailed indoor parking maps required to power autonomous vehicles globally and the CCAV grant will enable us to accelerate the on-going development of this exciting new technology.”

Notes to Editors:
Parkopedia is the world’s leading parking service provider used by millions of drivers and organizations such as Apple, Audi, BMW, Coyote, Ford, Garmin, GM, HERE, Jaguar, Land Rover, Peugeot, Sygic, TomTom, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo and many others.

Parkopedia provides detailed static information on 60 million parking spaces in over 8000 cities, including real-time parking space availability information in over 2000 cities.

The service allows drivers to find the closest parking to their destination, tells them how much it will cost and whether the space is available. Parkopedia also allows drivers to pay for parking online, through a mobile app and in-car.