Smart Parking Research: AVP will be implemented on a large scale in 2023-EEWORLD

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Zoss Automotive Research Institute released the "2021 Automatic Parking and Autonomous Valet Parking Industry Research Report", which sorted out the technical routes, business models, product solutions and the degree of parking intelligence of major automatic parking and AVP suppliers.

The APA assembly rate reached 12.3% in 2020, an increase of 4.28 percentage points year-on-year

According to statistics from Zoss Automotive Research, in 2020, the APA assembly volume of passenger cars in China was 2.308 million, a year-on-year increase of 46.4%; the APA assembly rate was 12.3%, an increase of 4.28 percentage points over the whole year of 2019. In 2020, the APA assembly volume decreased as passenger car sales declined due to the epidemic in February, but overall it grew steadily.

China's passenger car APA monthly assembly volume and year-on-year growth from 2019 to 2020

Source: Zoss Automotive Research

Among them, the models with APA function and high sales volume are mainly from foreign brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Buick, etc. Fully automatic parking F-APA and remote control parking are the main implementation solutions of intelligent parking system.

Mid-to-high-end and luxury models are beginning to try out pre-installed L3 memory parking and L4 autonomous valet parking functions.

The single-vehicle intelligent AVP is prioritized for memory parking, and the field-side AVP is prioritized for P3 and P4 parking lots

AVP (Automated Valet Parking) means that the user gets off the vehicle at a designated drop-off point and issues a parking instruction through a mobile phone APP. After receiving the instruction, the vehicle can automatically drive to the parking space in the parking lot without the need for user operation and monitoring. The user issues a pick-up instruction through a mobile phone APP, and the vehicle can automatically drive from the parking space to the designated pick-up point after receiving the instruction. If multiple vehicles receive parking instructions at the same time, multiple vehicles can dynamically and automatically wait to enter the parking space.

Research shows that the AVP function can improve the intelligence of vehicles and thus promote car sales, reduce parking lot operating costs by 30%, reduce 10% of invalid traffic time in parking lots, and save about 10-15 minutes of vehicle pick-up and return time.

There are many participants in the AVP market, and the main technical solutions include single-vehicle intelligence, field intelligence, and field coordination. Among them, single-vehicle intelligence is the solution most adopted by many OEMs, and the main providers include Baidu, Zongmu Technology, etc. In September 2020, at the Beijing Auto Show, the new Hongqi brand's first full-size pure electric SUV E-HS9 officially started pre-sale. This model is equipped with the valet parking system (AVP) provided by Zongmu Technology.

Baidu is the representative of bicycle intelligent AVP. Baidu has planned the implementation path for the AVP system, from near to far, from easy to difficult, and the first to be implemented is memory parking (Home-AVP).

Source: Baidu Images

Home-AVP: Memory parking. From the elevator entrance to the parking space, learn once, the user presses the phone outside the car to call the car back, and the car is unmanned; Public-AVP: From any pick-up and drop-off point in the garage to the parking space, the user puts the car at any point in the garage, and the car automatically finds a parking space; after the vehicle is called, it will drive unmanned to the user's designated location;

Urban-AVP: From the pick-up and drop-off point to the parking space within 1 km of the parking space, users can call or return the vehicle at any time within 1 km of the parking space, and the vehicle is unmanned.

Bosch is a representative of the smart solution providers at the airport. Bosch has teamed up with Mercedes-Benz and parking operator Apcoa to deploy an automatic valet parking (AVP) system in the P6 parking lot at Stuttgart Airport, realizing the commercial trial operation of AVP.

The main providers of parking lot collaboration solutions include Huawei and others; since the solution involves multiple stakeholders (including property companies, autonomous parking technology manufacturers, OEMs, travel platform operators, etc.), coordination is relatively difficult and commercialization is the most difficult.

The "Overall Technical Requirements for Autonomous Valet Parking Systems" was issued, which for the first time set clear requirements for on-site standards.

At present, the standards for autonomous valet parking are mainly group standards. In order to fill the gap in China's autonomous valet parking (AVP) industry standards and solve the compatibility issues of various autonomous valet parking (AVP) solutions, in December 2020, the China Society of Automotive Engineers and the China Communications Industry Association issued the "Overall Technical Requirements for Autonomous Valet Parking Systems" (T/CSAE156-2020).

The standard covers three technical paths: vehicle-side intelligence, field-side intelligence, and vehicle-field integration and collaboration, and forms four main contents: system definition, safety application scenarios, overall system technical requirements, and overall system testing requirements.

The "General Technical Requirements for Autonomous Valet Parking Systems" classifies the intelligentization of parking lots into P0, P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5. Based on the classification method of this standard, Zos Automotive Research Institute has extended its interpretation, as shown in the following table:

Smart parking lot classification and characteristics

Source: Zoss Automotive Research

In the above table, the P2 parking lot basically meets the parking lot characteristics required by the single-vehicle intelligent AVP, and the P4 parking lot basically meets the characteristics of the strong-field AVP parking lot. The P3 parking lot meets the characteristics of the weak-field parking lot, and most vehicle-road collaboration solutions will be implemented in the P3 parking lot.

Most industry experts believe that the parking lot collaboration route represents the future of AVP. After communicating with industry experts, Zos believes that any technical route requires a safety responsibility subject, that is, who is responsible for the safety of the AVP system. Car side or parking lot side? Therefore, Zos believes that the responsible subject of strong parking lot side AVP should be the parking lot operator and parking lot side AVP supplier, and the responsible subject of weak parking lot side AVP should be the OEM and car side AVP technology supplier.

According to the parking lot matching principle in the standard, P2 parking lots require L4 smart cars to apply AVP, and it is unlikely that L4 smart cars will be mass-produced in the short term (before 2025). Even if a P2 parking lot is built, there will not be many vehicles available. Therefore, before 2025, parking lots that support vehicle-road collaboration solutions (P3 or P4) have greater room for development.

Smart parking related technical standards

Source: Zoss Automotive Research

As a sub-standard of the "Overall Technical Requirements for Autonomous Valet Parking Systems", the "Technical Requirements for Autonomous Valet Parking Maps and Positioning" is under discussion and is expected to be drafted in December 2021. Other AVP sub-standards, such as the AVP parking lot communication sub-standard, the AVP testing sub-standard, and the memory parking sub-standard are also under study.

OEMs step up mass production and development of smart parking systems

At present, OEMs are accelerating the mass production of AVP through self-research or external cooperation. Some OEMs, such as WM Motor, have achieved L4 unmanned AVP autonomous parking in specific scenarios through cooperation with Baidu; Geely's automatic parking technology has reached 5G-AVP 1km unmanned parking, and will explore entering the AVP intelligent cloud map valet parking stage in the future; GAC plans to try to install memory parking function on some models starting at the end of 2020, and install AVP function on some high-end and luxury models in the first half of 2021; Great Wall has carried out AVP mass production cooperation with Baidu Apollo, and announced that it will mass-produce vehicles with AVP function in 2021.

It is generally believed that the AVP system will accelerate testing and on-vehicle preparations in 2021-2022, and the AVP system will begin to be implemented on a large scale in 2023.

In terms of the parking business model, parking lot operators, OEMs and AVP solution providers can make profits by charging AVP subscription fees or charging by the number of times. Parking lot operators can also charge fees by providing value-added services derived from smart parking systems. For example, Bosch integrates automatic charging of electric vehicles, unmanned car washing and express delivery to provide a complete solution for parking lot operators.

OEM Smart Parking Layout Trends 2020-2021