Taiwan's Automotive Research &Testing Center promoting its intelligent parking guidance system

... and has invited four local Taiwan makers of automotive electronics or IT devices to form an industry alliance to promote the commercialization of the system, with an R&D budget of NT$250 million (US$7.6 million) and a goal of applying APGS to automobiles produced in Taiwan in 2010, according to ARTC.

Based on an intelligent sensing technology, APGS is able to recognize the physical environment surrounding a car to find the best parking place and then automatically drive the car into the parking place through the best route, ARTC explained.

The four charter members of the alliance are Whetron Electronics, Bcom Electronics, Taigene Electric Machinery and Hua-chuang Automotive Information Technical Center, ARTC noted. Hua-chuang is a subsidiary of Yulon Motor, a large Taiwan-based car maker.

Global demand for APGS will grow to 15 million units in 2010 and 24 million units in 2015, ARTC cited statistics by Strategy Analytics as indicating. Currently worldwide, only a few companies have developed APGS technology, including Japan-based Aisin, Germany-based Bosch and France-based Valeo, ARTC indicated.