Baden‑Württemberg pilots automated scan vehicles to catch illegal parkers

The transport ministry of Baden‑Württemberg is testing a fleet of "scan vehicles" that use roof‑mounted laser scanners and camera sensors to automatically record licence plates, location and time of parked cars. The system cross‑checks the data with digital parking permits or resident permits and forwards confirmed violations to the responsible traffic authority, while correctly parked cars have their data deleted and faces are pixelated. Vehicles are driven twice over each area a few minutes apart, allowing the system to distinguish brief stops from longer illegal parking.

The pilot began with a trial run on the University of Hohenheim campus in Stuttgart and, after a successful first test, will be rolled out to several municipalities from September 2025. The ministry hopes the technology will augment existing on‑the‑ground checks, increase detection rates and improve overall road safety. Neighboring countries such as France, Poland and the Netherlands already employ similar scan‑vehicle systems.

If the trial proves effective, the ministry may consider a broader deployment across the state, potentially reshaping how parking violations are monitored and fined.