The unmanned vehicle undergoes a road test in the parking lot in Shanghai's Jiading district. [Photo/WeChat account: jiadingbao]

China's first unmanned smart parking project opened on a trial basis at the Auto-Innovation Park in Shanghai's Jiading district on Nov 29, the first phase of its journey toward commercial application.

The project uses a high-precision parking lot sensor for car capturing and positioning, and a smart data center for parking space allocation, path planning and data transmission to allow vehicles to park themselves automatically. Passengers can simply get out of the car, walk off and let the car park itself. The whole process is completely automatic, with no human involvement at all apart from the driver pressing a button on the service's dedicated smartphone app.

Unmanned smart parking is characterized by limited distance and low speed, which are recognized as the two most suitable conditions to facilitate its commercial application.

"Unmanned smart parking solves the parking difficulty, saves time and greatly enhances the efficiency of parking lots and the whole city," said Xu Jian, executive director of Shanghai International Automobile City.

Initiated by the Auto-Innovation Park last year with the participation of local car factories, startups and universities, the project has so far transformed 15 parking lots, three above ground and 12 underground.

The second phase of the project, which will aim to develop the project into a scalable business, is now under planning. Auto-Innovation Park will further cooperate with car factories to increase vehicle numbers and performance, establish a standard for qualified parking lots, and improve vehicle scheduling and dispatching through big data.

"The project is expected to be put into trial operation next year and expanded to the whole country in five years," said the project director.

The "Galaxy Project", a public scheme to support such new technologies through subsidies and resources, was also launched at the Auto-Innovation Park on the same day, and the first 21 projects to receive support were unveiled.

The project is going to invest 200 million yuan ($30.3 million) in supporting 100 excellent innovative automobile projects in five years, according to Xu Jian.

Officials and media representatives attend the launch ceremony of the "Galaxy Project" at the Auto-Innovation Park in Shanghai. [Photo/WeChat account: jiadingbao]