Enlarge Image Bosch

Self-parking systems like the one on the new BMW 7 Series or Tesla's own Summon technology are handy, but limited. You can't have a complicated entry or exit procedure, really only making the tech useful for tight spaces if you can pull straight into them. But one of Bosch's latest innovations does away with all that, although a bit of human effort is still required.

Home Zone Park Assist is one of the technologies that the German company recently showed off, and it puts us that much closer to true autonomous parking. Using a smartphone app, a stereo camera and ultrasonic sensors, the system will navigate tricky, complex park jobs without the driver being in the car. The only catch is that the driver must first navigate the route manually, in order for the system to "learn" and repeat the route.

The driver can be as much as 328 feet away from the car, so long as the smartphone is still connected to the vehicle via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Bosch claims this system will be on a vehicle in the next two or three years, although it declined to mention which model will carry it first.

Bosch rolled out some other interesting systems recently. The company has developed a kind of pedestrian detection, a highly detailed surround-view camera system and low-speed reverse braking. Bosch is also working on an overhead clearance assist, which uses a stereo camera to determine if a vehicle carrying something on its roof will be able to clear upcoming obstacles.