Go fetch yourself: Hyundai Le Fil Rouge shows off self-parking and wireless charging

With the impending onset of autonomous technology, future cars will not only be able to drive people to their destinations without assistance, they’ll also be able to perform tasks without humans in them at all.

Hyundai

and

Kia

, among other companies, see this as an opportunity to solve small infrastructure problems and quell inconveniences. In particular, the Hyundai group envisions an

electric car

that can park and charge itself using wireless induction technology.

Using the

Le Fil Rouge concept

car as the subject, Hyundai released a video that demonstrates how this idea could potentially work. Assume that

autonomous cars

will be interlinked through a network. In this video, a parking garage and the owner of the network also have access and connectivity to that theoretical system.

After the driver gets out of the car at her destination, she uses an app on her smartphone to instruct the car to go to the nearest available charging station. The car then drives to a paired parking garage, sans humans, and parks itself in an available spot with a

wireless charging pad

. Using magnetic induction, the car refills on energy. When the charge is complete, it then moves itself to a different normal parking spot using the so-called Automated Valet Parking System (AVPS) until the owner is ready for the car.

When the owner summons the car using the app, the Le Fil Rouge, now shown in the video as ready with 341 miles of range, wakes itself up and drives back to the owner.

Although this is a concept for now, Hyundai and Kia believe it could become a reality within the decade. They are considering commercializing such technology with their Level 4

autonomous vehicles

, which are expected to launch about 2025. The ultimate goal of launching

fully autonomous rides

is set for 2030.

The idea of self-parking is something several manufacturers are already working on.

Tesla

has its

summon

feature, NIssan is exploring the idea with its

Pro Pilot program

, and

Volkswagen

plans to

unveil its own version

in 2020. At this point, both wireless charging and self-parking features seem inevitable.