Hyundai and Kia reveal autonomous charging and parking system concept

Korean brands Hyundai and Kia have released a new video demonstrating a conceptual autonomous charging and parking system. It’s designed to allow a high volume of parking and charging of electric cars in city-centre or multi-storey car-park environments.

The proposed system combines wireless charing, fully autonomous driving capability and remote connectivity to make charging more efficient. In the video, an electric-car driver. is shown requesting a charge when their vehicle runs low on power.

The car then searches for a nearby available wireless charging pad and drives itself to the location. Once charging is completed, the car moves itself to a nearby parking space, allowing other electric vehicles to charge on the pad.

Hyundai and Kia say they are considering commercialising the technology when a car with ‘level 4’ (i.e. completely unmanned) autonomous driving capability is launched, around 2025.

The sister brands also intend to commercialise autonomous vehicles in various ‘smart cities’ from 2021, with a goal of launching fully autonomous vehicles by 2030.