The technology, which will be demonstrated next week, is being deployed in a concept car and is activated by a mobile phone app by the driver, who then walks away from the car.

The vehicle uses sensors to localise and navigate to a free parking space. The procedure is reversed when the driver comes back to pick up the car.

‘Autonomous Parking is a concept technology that relieves the driver of the time-consuming task of finding a vacant parking space. The driver just drops the vehicle off at the entrance to the car park and picks it up in the same place later,’ said Thomas Broberg, senior safety advisor at Volvo Car Group.

The technology is combined with sensors and auto brake to ensure safe interaction with other cars and pedestrians in the car park.

‘Our approach is based on the principle that autonomously driven cars must be able to move safely in environments with non-autonomous vehicles and unprotected road users,’ added Mr Broberg.

The company, which has already played a lead role in the SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) driverless road train project, says its aim is to gain leadership in the field of autonomous driving by moving beyond concepts and actually delivering pioneering technologies that will reach the customers. The Autonomous Parking concept is one of several development projects in this field.

Volvo added that the autonomous parking and platooning technologies are still being developed but autonomous steering will make it into the new Volvo XC90, due to be unveiled at the end of 2014.