Meet the world’s first car that parks itself! Volkswagen’s advanced Park Assist Vision lets drivers select an available space using their sat-nav screen. They then simply slot the automatic gear selector into Park. They can choose whether to stay in the car and watch as the system goes to work, or get out and walk away!
All they have to do is point the remote-control keyfob at the vehicle, and it will reverse-park into a space, cut the engine off and activate the door locks automatically.
The self-parking Passat uses twin cameras in the door mirrors to gauge the dimensions of the space. By sending commands to the steering, using the electronic parking brake, gearbox and engine idle, the car then drives itself slowly into the gap.
The driver can also interrupt the man oeuvre at any time using the remote control. VW’s existing Park Assist system already helps drivers of Tourans, Tiguans and Passats with parallel parking, but the new set-up works in an altogether different way, by allowing perpendicular spaces to be negotiated, too. VW claims these are often too narrow for drivers to squeeze into, and when they do they then can’t get out of the vehicle without damaging its doors against other cars or walls.
The VW says the system won’t reach production before 2010.
I understand that some of the spaces are too narrow to open up the doors and that is why this is a benefit for parking the car, but that doesn’t matter when you go to get back in to your car. You still have a tight fitting space to open your doors and get in. To take it one step further, how about a button on the remote-controlled key to auto-start and pull your car forward a bit so you can get in from a tight fitting space.