Bosch has designed an innovative car park management system which hunts for spaces on the driver’s behalf, saving motorists time, money and frustration.

Bosch’s active car park management system recognises which parking spaces in an urban area are free and reports where exactly they are, using a smartphone app to guide the driver. With the average car park space search taking ten minutes, this technology saves time, money and is also better for the environment. “We’re relieving drivers of the often burdensome search for a parking space,” says Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, member of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH.

The key to active car park management is the reliable detection of available parking spaces. Bosch has developed a special occupancy sensor that is scarcely bigger than a CD in terms of its circumference and measures around just three centimetres in height. The sensors are installed in parking garages and on-street parking spaces, either on or in the asphalt, as desired. The occupancy sensors operate wirelessly and are powered by batteries, which eliminates the effort and expense of having to lay cables. Each battery has a service life of up to seven years. The sensors are capable of withstanding any type of weather conditions, including the increased wear caused by heavy trucks and snow plows, due to their robust plastic housing. Inside the housing, Bosch installs two different sensor technologies that corroborate the information collected by the other. The benefit of this is enhanced, error-free detection of spaces.


The occupancy sensor regularly checks whether a parking space is available. Using a gateway, which is similar to an internet router, the Bosch sensor relays the encrypted information securely to a server, where a real-time parking map of all free and occupied spaces is created that can be accessed with the app or online. “We’re making parking spaces web-enabled,” Hoheisel says. Meta-information on each parking space is available as well, including whether it is a space reserved for families, women, or disabled drivers, what the parking time costs, and if a charge spot for electric vehicles is available. Other functions are also possible, such as a cash-free payment service via the app.

Active car park management is just one example of how Bosch is shaping the connected world for drivers, but there are benefits to car park operators too. “We can further improve the occupancy rate of heavily-used parking spaces,” Hoheisel says. The key to this is through intelligently evaluating the data. A web portal provides car park operators with a clear overview of which parking spaces were occupied by how many vehicles and when. During peak times for instance, this information can direct drivers to spaces that are less frequently occupied. Bosch engineers are developing a parking forecast as well. Using historic data, they hope to draw important conclusions for the future, which could considerably alleviate the scramble for parking spaces often seen during recurring major events, for example.

The components of active car park management, which include occupancy sensors, the gateway, and the real-time parking map, also set the stage for the fully automated parking function of tomorrow. In the not-too-distant future, drivers will simply leave their vehicles at the entrance to a parking garage. Using their smartphone, they will give the car the command to look for a parking space on its own. The car will be summoned back using the same procedure. Bosch calls this automated valet parking. To enable this service, self-driving cars need reliable 
information on free parking spaces, which Bosch can already supply. “We’re going to gradually introduce active car park management into Bosch’s own parking spaces and parking garages,” Hoheisel says. As a result, associates and visitors will be able to find available parking spaces faster.