European Automated Valet Parking at the EPA Congress: The next step for parking

From 12 to 14 September, the European Parking Association held its 20th EPA Congress & Exhibition in Brussels under the theme ‘The EU Green Deal and the Future of Parking – Integrated solutions for Dynamic Urban Management’. ERTICO presented its recently-launched platform EAVP in a fruitful session on Automated Valet Parking (AVP). 

Automated Valet Parking (AVP) is an innovative alternative to enhance the parking experience. This parking system removes off-street parking hassle, eliminating the need to search for a parking spot. The driver can leave his vehicle, which will find a free lot and autonomously park. A group of experts from the sector discussed the implications of this trailblazing initiative and the potential of the European Automated Valet Parking (EAVP) ERTICO platform on 14 September at the 20th EPA Congress. 

The platform focuses on urban environments where parking spaces are more limited. In addition to bringing benefits to the driver, AVP optimizes the parking capacity and positively impacts the wider community, improving space efficiency and safety. EAVP strives to build a solid stakeholder ecosystem to overcome city, users and parking facilities challenges. Frank Daems, senior manager at ERTICO, introduced EAVP’s contributions on subjects such as parking-demand management or multimodality. 

Mr Daems stated that ‘the ERTICO European EAVP innovation platform is a great opportunity to bring deployment of Automated Valet Parking (AVP) to reality. With the broad multi-stakeholder support to deploy AVP, users, cities, parking operators, and even logistics benefit from more convenient, safer, cleaner and more efficient operations. AVP is the core seed for automation to happen in cities and the whole mobility space.’

The session also delved into the PWC state-of-affairs report on AVP. Bosch and Kopernikus showed the results of their real-life applications. 

Additionally, Joost Vantome, ERTICO CEO, was invited to participate in one of the Plenary Talk Shows to share his vision on ‘the future of parking in a disruptive mobility urban scene’. He shared the enriching round-table with high representatives such as Isabelle Vandoorne, Deputy Head of the Unit in Research and Innovation and Urban Mobility at the DG Move (European Commission).