Skip to main content

VTT’s robot car parks autonomously

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland’s robot car Marilyn is parking autonomously - 100m away from its driver. The trial in Tampere uses the Internet of Things (IoT) and is expected to allow vehicles to park closer together without fear of collisions at airports and shopping centres. Johan Scholliers, project manager at VTT, says the technology will also help reduce congestion in parking areas.
June 25, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
814 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland’s robot car Marilyn is parking autonomously - 100m away from its driver. The trial in Tampere uses the Internet of Things (IoT) and is expected to allow vehicles to park closer together without fear of collisions at airports and shopping centres.


Johan Scholliers, project manager at VTT, says the technology will also help reduce congestion in parking areas.

Marilyn utilises 7643 Here Technologies’ ultra-wideband (UWB)-based technology which allows it to be positioned indoors without satellite assistance. UWB is a radio technology that transmits data in short and low-power pulses over a wide frequency band.

The driver parks the car through an app that reserves a parking space. A parking guidance system confirms whether the space is free and detects potential problems using traffic cameras connected to an open IoT platform – which in turn transmits route information to the vehicle.

VTT’s trial is part of the Autopilot project’s investigation of the potential for IoT-automated driving. The initiative is funded by the European Commission and is also operational in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Spain and South Korea.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Knowing when to slow down
    August 8, 2018
    Level 2 driver assistance vehicles have little problem reading fixed metal signs at the roadside - but it’s a different story with VMS in tunnels, finds Alan Dron. Following a series of hands-free driving tests in tunnels, an Australian road authority believes that car manufacturers have to up their game before vehicles have the required levels of competence to consistently perform ‘assisted driving’ tasks. The trials, in the state of Victoria late last year, tested the ability of several vehicles to stay
  • UK shopping centre opts for APT parking systems
    August 28, 2015
    APT Skidata is to deliver a fully integrated parking solution for the Bradford Broadway shopping centre development – the UK’s largest retail centre to be opened in 2015. Currently in its final construction phase, the shopping centre, situated in the heart of Bradford’s retail district, is part of a wider urban regeneration project in Bradford, ‘Connecting the City’, and is due to open on 5 November.
  • Verizon expands MEC deployment in US
    November 25, 2020
    Edge computing and 5G are 'essential' in C-V2X spaces for enabling C/AVs, firm says
  • 5G smart light poles extend from Nokia campus
    September 19, 2019
    A collaboration led by Nokia Bells is extending smart poles beyond the LuxTurrim5G project in the Finnish city of Espoo to a nearby residential area called Kera. The LuxTurrim5G project seeks to develop and demonstrate a fast 5G network based on smart light poles at Nokia’s campus. The new smart poles will support Sensible4’s autonomous bus Gatcha operating between this area and Kerra railway station. Juha Salmelin, LuxTurrim5G project coordinator from Nokia, says: “During the project, we have learned a