Parkopedia and Hyundai AutoEver have shown an in-car navigation system that keeps guiding you after the sat-nav would usually stop. The demo plotted a whole route from public roads to a specific parking bay, EV charger or zone inside an indoor or underground car park, where GPS typically stops directing drivers.
The new Indoor Maps service plugs the gap between the car park entrance and the place you actually want to stop. Instead of leaving drivers to hunt for spaces, it provides turn-by-turn directions within multi-storeys and basements, including to accessible bays, payment zones and on-site walking routes. Parkopedia has integrated the feature into its EV product so drivers can be guided directly to a working charger and handle parking and charging in a single flow.
Parkopedia says it will be the first to offer high-definition indoor maps at scale across Europe, using rich 3D point-cloud data rather than low-fidelity diagrams. The company has already mapped 18 of Europe's 25 busiest airports, with individual car parks up to 6,000 spaces, and is adding more locations daily.
North American mapping has begun in the San Francisco Bay Area. Priority sites include airports, train station car parks and large shopping centres, where wayfinding is most stressful.
Accurate indoor mapping lays the groundwork for more innovative features later. Because the system knows the indoor lane-level layout, it can enable tighter integration with smart infrastructure, support future autonomy features and underpin Automated Valet Parking when regulations and vehicles allow.
Duncan Licence, Parkopedia's chief product officer, said: "We are pleased that Hyundai AutoEver has proven that our Indoor Maps service can be successfully integrated into its vehicles and highly valued by its users. We are committed to making cities more liveable, with this technology contributing immensely to end-to-end multi-modal travel and seamless mobility across a variety of everyday use cases.”
Production timing and market rollouts will depend on individual manufacturers. Parkopedia says its toolchain uses AI, computer vision and custom algorithms to speed up the creation of indoor maps by automatically recognising features such as entrances, staircases and lifts. The companies plan to keep expanding coverage so that end-to-end guidance works the same way whether drivers are parking outdoors or deep inside a multi-storey car park.
Hyundai AutoEver, a leader in mobility innovation, is part of the Hyundai Group.