Renault Reveals AUMP Self-Parking Car

Volvo, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and even Google are all making headway with their research into autonomous cars, and now French automaker Renault has thrown its hat into the ring.

Revealing its own self-driving technology demonstrator this week, Renault says the Advanced Urban Mobility Platform (AUMP) will be its testbed for future autonomous vehicle experiments.

Right now its abilities are limited, with the Fluence Z.E.-based AUMP prototype able to park itself or be remotely recalled to a designated meeting point by the driver.

In other words, it's an automated valet parking service - something that would have been a godsend for anybody unfortunate enough to have visited a shopping centre in the past three weeks.

The system is able to navigate to and from a parking spot and is capable of avoiding obstacles along the way, though Renault doesn't mention whether the AUMP system uses radar, optical or other systems to do this - or even if the system is based on corporate cousin Nissan's self-parking Leaf.

Once it pulls up near the driver, it remains locked until the driver swipes an RFID identifiaction tag over the windscreen.

As far as complexity goes it's no more advanced than what Volvo and  Nissan have revealed, but the AUMP technology is at least the first step for Renault on the road to a truly autonomous car.

• Autonomous Vehicles | Renault | Future | Technology