Somerville, MA to Test the Benefits of Self-Parking Cars

Tod Newcombe reports on the latest innovation in parking technology—cars that park themselves. The concept already has a test-bed in Massachusetts.

"The city of Somerville, Mass., and Audi, the German carmaker, have signed an agreement to not only create self-driving cars that park themselves but also build the infrastructure that such a technology would require (and allow). It could save the city as much as $100 million, according to Audi."

Newcombe describes the benefit of self-driving cars to parking three-fold: one, self-driving cars require less room to park, and thus can more cars can be shoe-horned into smaller spaces. "Second, parking garages would no longer have to be located downtown -- drivers and their passengers could exit the vehicles in the city and the cars would self-drive to the garages on the downtown’s periphery." And finally, all of the space and street capacity freed up by self-driving cars could then be used for bikes, pedestrians, transit, and real estate development.

More on how the Audi test will work in Somerville:

"The self-parking project, set to begin testing in 2018, will take place in an area known as Assembly Row, a former industrial district that the city hopes to transform into residences, offices, retail space, leisure amenities and a hotel. Currently, around 40 percent of the area within the Assembly Row project is dedicated to parking spaces. A garage that allows cars to self-park could save 26 percent of parking spaces for other uses, according to Audi, which calculates that each space is worth $25,000, or approximately $100 million in total savings by the time the project is completed in 2030."