Ford, Bosch, and Dan Gilbert's real estate firm Bedrock today detailed an autonomous parking pilot scheduled to launch at The Assembly, a mixed-used building in Detroit, in September. Leveraging Bosch sensors that monitor driving corridors and their surroundings to guide vehicles to and from assigned spaces, Ford plans to demo how its cars can self-drive to parking spaces without human drivers onboard. The autonomous parking valet -- which the companies claim is the first of its kind in the U.S. -- leans on a range of intelligent infrastructure supplied by Bosch, including lidar sensors, stereo cameras, and a dedicated server. Complementary in-car Ford technology converts commands into driving maneuvers, enabling cars to drive themselves up and down ramps and spot potential hazards (including pedestrians). Upon arriving at the garage, drivers will leave the test vehicle in a designated area and use an app to send it into an automated parking maneuver.

A Californian metropolis will soon become pilot city for fully-automated and driverless driving -- thanks to Bosch and Daimler who are speeding up the SAE Level 4/5 tech in the city. The chosen city will see a fleet of autonomous shuttle service on selected routes in the San Francisco Bay in Silicon Valley, which will be operated by Daimler Mobility Services. The pilot project will demonstrate how mobility services, such as car sharing (car2go), ride-hailing (mytaxi) and multi-modal platforms (moovel), can shape the future of mobility. Both have selected Nvidia as the AI platform supplier as part of their control unit network. This network will also be used in the fleet vehicles wherein both companies will put on the Californian roads in Q2/2019.

Mercedes Benz owner Daimler is teaming up with Bosch to launch a fleet of driverless taxis in California's Silicon Valley next year. It is part of a program to test vehicles designed for city driving in an attempt to keep up with the likes of Waymo and Uber. The world's largest maker of premium cars and biggest automotive supplier gave few details about their robo-taxi program, described as a passenger shuttle service, and did not reveal which city would host it. Mercedes boss Daimler is teaming up with Bosch to launch a fleet of driverless taxis in California's Silicon Valley next year. Negotiations with the municipality within the sprawling technology hub of Silicon Valley were still underway, spokespersons for the companies said on a conference call with journalists.