Look, we get it, valets are people, too. Most probably go about their business schlepping your car from a convenient waypoint near an entrance to a venue or restaurant to a faraway parking space with the utmost care and caution. But you’ve seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, haven’t you? If not—how?—there’s an iconic sequence involving a Ferrari 250 GT California, a pair of speed-hungry valets, and a joyride that would make any car owner go out of their way to park their ride themselves. Mercedes-Benz has tapped into that protective instinct with a new commercial for the 2021 S-Class sedan titled, appropriately, “Valet Guys.”
You can, and probably just did, watch the commercial via the YouTube clip above. So, we’ll spare you the explanation about the seedy-looking valets and the abuse they dole out on Mercedes-Benz vehicles of various vintages, including a Ferris Bueller-like scene with a classic SL soaring through the air. What counts is the part where these Benz-thrashing valets are confronted with a new 2021 S-Class sedan.
The flagship sedan’s owner steps out of the car in full view of the valets, and promptly instructs her S-Class to park itself via her smartphone using its Intelligent Park Pilot option. Now, clever and entertaining as the commercial’s setup is, there are a few caveats. The big one is that this automated self-parking feature isn’t yet available; the necessary hardware is baked into the 2021 S-Class, but regulations and “current infrastructure” don’t currently allow it—or so says a disclaimer that runs at the bottom of the frame.
You see, Intelligent Park Pilot is “ready for Automated Valet Parking (AVP, SAE Level 4),” a self-parking capability that goes beyond simple fore-aft, driverless low-speed parking functions available in the Hyundai Sonata and Tesla models. No, with AVP, owners may exit their vehicle at the mouth of a connected parking structure or lot, direct their car to park, and it will autonomously drive itself to a designated parking spot and, well, park itself. When you’re ready to go, the car can be summoned from its resting place and meet you at the entrance, again, like a personal valet, minus the human element.
And, yes, Tesla’s similar “Smart Summon” feature is currently available, but the Mercedes version has one key advantage: It’s actually connected to the infrastructure around it. Meaning, beyond the Tesla simply “feeling” its way to its owner using onboard sensors, the S-Class coordinates that same sensor-based location placement with a properly equipped lot or structure’s own sensors, meaning the sedan is not simply Roomba’ing its way back to you but that it actually knows the way through the garage.
If you’re wondering where your nearest “connected garage” might be, the truth is there probably isn’t one anywhere nearby. Mercedes is using the connected airport lot in its hometown of Stuttgart for testing. As for when this capability might reach the U.S. market, figure on waiting a while. If you pay close attention to the ad, despite what looks to be a California-esque backdrop, the commercial appears to have been filmed somewhere in Europe. Giveaways include the stop sign in the background of some scenes reading “PARE” and what looks like a Dodge Charger police car but isn’t that is driven by a heavily German-accented cop. But anyway, valet parking is about to get a big tech upgrade.
