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Self-Parking Car Available In Japan
sinjayde writes "Yahoo!/Reuters is reporting that Toyota has released a car for sale in Japan that is able to park itself: 'Toyota's new hybrid gasoline-electric Prius sedan uses electrically operated power steering and sensors that help guide the car when reversing into parking spaces.'" No need to rely on the reverse parking formula anymore?
In Soviet Russia, car parks you!
Would you get a "fail" if you used this feature during your driving examination? I managed to pass it, but for those who cannot seem to master parallel parking, this must be a boon.
you still gonna do some work here, since it only helps you back in. so, if you hit the car next to you, dont blame it on the car (like you normally do)!!
what happens when we forget how to park cars ourselves? technology is good, but people are getting too darn lazy these days. is parking really that hard? survey says: only for old people
1. buy car that can park it self
2. sell driving lesson school for people who are afraid to parallel park on driving test. with the promise they can use car on the test.
3. ????
4. profit.
Will your insurance company pick it up if you (I mean it) damages another car?
In the US, these have to pass some rigorous gov't inspection and testing before they are allowed on the road. I don't think I want the liability.
Is parking really that hard? Are people really that stupid and lazy? Don't answer that. Can I get a robot to feed me my cereal in the morning?
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
Now find me a car that can FIND parking by itself. That I will pay money for.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
I have been impressed with Toyota's tack record in terms of innovation. Energy friendly cars were just the beginning, now integrating technology like this into cars will really make them sell. A far cry from what is being done with American and European cars (exept for the energy part).
--- to swing on the spiral...
what we now need are cars that merge onto highways for us. Just like how fighter planes take off without the need of pilot input. I dont think many drivers would go for a car that drives for them, but something that makes merging into fast/dangerous traffic would be greatly appreciated.
later,
epic
"Im drowning here, and you're describing the water!"
What happens when the system crashes? :)
Here is the BBC's take on the same story.
The technology for this was shown off months ago - I saw the story. I am glad it is finally being released to the public.
Thanks for that. 'Cause you know Yahoo gets /.ed every time.
- ebh
This is not new. I've seen a similar system nearly 12 years ago used by a handicapped photographer at my high school. His car was retrofitted with a very similar system that would park the car by itself.
really enjoy driving anymore as it is, and with most major metros (and smaller metros as well) experiencing some level of gridlock, I drive as little as possible in areas where this would be of any real use. I know we are talking about a car company, but I would rather see this kind of effort go in to public transportation/mass transit.
Robots to auto-post to Slashdot?
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
When backing into a space, your front end swings out a bit. So you have to watch for traffic approaching from behind before you do this. Does the car think to do that? No? Whoops.
I'm more impressed by the fact that the engine in the new prius is now 78 horsepower(it used to be 70 hp) and the motor is 50kW/67hp (it used to be 44 hp).
Toyota did the right thing. The new prius is bigger than the old one (now a midsize, not a compact), has fewer emissions, more horsepower, and accelerates faster. Now, if they could only make it cheaper, too....
"Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative" - Miyamoto Musashi
I think that goes for OS's too
But can it pay the meter, and reverse over the parking cops trying to give you a parking fine?
I can imagine a Beowulf cluster of these. It must look exactly like rush hour.
Go hug some trees.
If you're modding parent of this post up, then you must think he's right. If you're modding the parent poster up, then you must think he's right.
What the fuck? Moderators are horrible, horrible creatures. They can't really *do* anything at all.
Be carefull if you want to import one, in Japan they drive on the left hand side.
I imagine when you try to autopark in a right hand side country it will park in the middle of the road instead of the sidewalk.
At first, it looked like the first sentence said "Car That Can Park Put Itself Up For Sale." It's probably just me, but I think a car that can put itself up for sale is probably more eloquent than one that can't.
-
And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"
When was the last time yahoo got slashdotted ?
Sunny Dubey
Troll? Ok...
Except I don't need to Karma whore, mine is maxed out already. Have a nice labour day. ;-)
My rights don't need management.
A car that continuously drives itself around the block, and avoids the need for parking. (Or parking tickets) Paying for the extra fuel is probabably cheaper that hourly parking in most major cities, and certainly would be in Japan.
My rights don't need management.
then the rest of it crashes too, duh.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
How about we adapt this technology so that it automatically detects if the parking spot is for a handicapt or not. If the owner parks illegally in one of these spots, the car backs the F$&K over them.
mildly funny
yes, but can it automatically flip the bird to that !@&#^$ who stole the spot from you, because is impolite car was made in the usa?
What we need is a car that watches the driver, and says things link "You're drunk! I'm NOT starting!" and "Hang up the cellphone and pay attention to your driving!"
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
It'll be interesting to see if different parking algorithms popup for different vehicles.
Obviously for the prius you need a fairly conservative routine. With restrictions like "don't bump the vehicles in front/back" and "there must initially be enough room for the vehicle to fit."
For a Hummer or Abrams tank I think you could probably relax the restrictions a little. If you need to widen the spot a little you could probably give the vehicles in front/back a little bump. Or just park on top of another vehicle.
I wonder how good the parking algorithm is when parking next to the edge of a cliff?
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
More technology in a car?
These days, cars are so complex that to even think about servicing one, you need a Ph.D. And fault finding in your own garage? Forget it. I'm probably well set up, well beyond most even normal revheads, and yet I look at this car and just wonder how the hell I could even possibly think about maintaining myself.
But that's not the part that really gets me. What really gets me is that cars are becoming so much more simple and dumb to operate, the real level of skill to drive one is lowering appreciably. Now, when it comes to suspension and brake technology, that's not a bad thing, you cant have a car that stops and handles too well. But it's more of the throw the thing in D and accelerate off, switch off brain that the rise of technology is beginning to breed.
I personally find driving a pleasure, but I truly hate when the car begins to interject. Traction control? It should be my right foot (given I drive RHD). Skid control? That's called appropriate steering / accelerator / brake response. Looking out for danger? That's called my eyes and ears. Being able to park? That's called learning how to do it properly!
My preference is for a good, high performance 4wd turbo. No Anti-lock, no skid and traction control, just lots of power, good tyres, a car with really good response to my inputs and a chassis that communicates what is goign on to me.
Enough of these rubbish do-dads that frankly, no good driver would ever need. Bring back some purity into the driving experience. I dont care how advanced this Puris is, I will not even think about going near one.
Frankly, a 1920 Model T is a more rewarding experience and those things are POS. But there really is something about the skill needed to drive an old car with a crash box..... somethign that brings a smile to your face and you truly enjoy the experience. Or doing 9,000 rpm in a loud rotary. Or pulling burnouts in a massive V8. Or dirt road drifting in a turbo 4wd.......
As if this.... appliance could ever match that. Bah. Turn them all into scrap.
This is blatant karma-whoring
So you admit complaining-about-a-hypothetical-karma-whore karma whoring?
When was the last time yahoo got slashdotted ?
probably the day you didn't plagarize a previous post.
If people ever actually think stuff like this is a good idea, we need to raise the tax on gasoline. No wonder we're so dependent on Middle Eastern oil.
Although they probally spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on engineers and designers, I'm sure they never took simple phisics into account.
More lives saved by Slashdot!
Banaaaana!
Since they can't fucking drive!
The freeway you're talking about is Interstate 15 near San Diego, CA. They built a single lane, multi-mile segment on the inside median, with magnets under the road every 100'. The car would be programed to follow the magnets and make course corrections. There were also ultrasonic sensors on the front and back. The demo had 3 cars at 100mph, 10' apart with the system engaged.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
On the front was a picture of a woman trying to parallel park, crunching into all the cars around her. The title was "Why women can't drive..."
:)
on the inside..
Because men will tell them this is 6 inches:
--> ==== <--
Needless to say it wasn't quite the punchline I was expecting
no comment
Sigh... we're already there -- see Google News!
"I can do that in the dark after 48 hours of no sleep, no problemo. Even with twenty people shouting in my ear" - your freindly automated machine...
Now I know what to get my girlfriend for a present.
If I had a girlfriend of course.
Maybe
It's hilarious that you are worried about a dependency on a new technology causing us to lose our ability to use a slightly-less-new technology.
technology is good, but people are getting too darn lazy these days. is walking really that hard? survey says: only for old people
I don't see how this can be sold in a western culture given the enormous potential for lame jokes.
come up with a way to put gps devices in parking meters that kick in when the space is empty. then anyone in a car with a gps unit can see where they are.
What happens when we forget how to park cars ourselves? technology is good, but people are getting too darn lazy these days. is parking really that hard?
What happens when we forget how to shift gears ourselves? Technology is good, but people are getting too darn lazy these days. Is shifting gears really that hard?
What happens when we forget how to ride horses ourselves? Technology is good, but people are getting too darn lazy these days. Is riding horses really that hard?
Etc etc etc...
Get front wheel drive manual car with a very very good handbrake.
Head towards the parking spot at a fair speed, as perpendicular to the spot as you can. Swerve car and pull handbrake and then brake and counter steer so that you neatly skid and slide in sideways.
With this method you can park in a spot that's practically the same length as your car - just depends on how accurate you are.
Getting out requires a bit more space - the length of the space must be slightly more than the diagonal length of your car. Pull handbrake to max, turn steering wheel max (to lock) towards side you want to exit from. Stomp on clutch, red line engine, release clutch, burn rubber and gradually spin car out of space.
Not recommended in uncontrolled environments.
Cars are getting more automated and automatic all the time. So people become lousier drivers, and the car companies will take this to mean MORE automation. At the rate we're going they'll put the cars on autopilot. You just tell 'em where to go and the car will take you there. Whether you like this or not is kind of besides the point ... crappy drivers will necessitate this kind of driving, and soon people will become so soft they'll prefer it. Maybe along the way there will be some not too subtle hints, like, if you insist on leaving the auto pilot off and driving the car yourself with a non-auto pilot car, your insurance rates will be jacked up accordingly.
You're kind of car afficionado ... saying you like a 1920 model T and a car that drives well without all the automatic crap. My guess is, you like to open up the hood and know what's going on. I think you're in the minority. Most of us just want to get from point a to point b and that's it.
Unless my next car has a CVT. The Toyota Prius is actualy looking pretty goot at this point.
Why are Ford and GM so far behind? They don't have CVT's. They are just talking about Hybrids, I'm not holding my breath.
Toyota and Honda have had Hybrid's and CVT transmisions for years now.
"But can it run Linux? sorry, I had to :) "
It can, but nobody wants to type man headlts.
"Derp de derp."
It's not a true CVT, but an E-CVT, because there are no varying gear ratios to change torque multiplication. The car has one single speed and engine torque output to the wheels is varied by resistance on an electric generator. This is driven through a pretty slick planetary gearset which gets the job done. Gobs of electric motor torque takes care of slow speed starts so that the car performs somewhat like an ordinary car.
I know. I own a 2002 Prius, and have ordered the 2004 (too bad they don't have self parking here in the States).
Go see the article on How Hybrids Work at howstuffworks.com
$ man woman *
-bash:
I love the Hybrid car philosophy, it is a step away from gas-guzzling SUV's. This is a great incentive for people to buy a Prius over another car too, and the body on the new models look alot better than the older ones. My friends dad has a Prius, and it drives fast, and it rides ALOT more smooth than a traditional car. I just don't know why this idea was never embrassed before. Also, how come we don't have cars that can drive themself on the interstate? It doesn't seem like it would be hard at all, since they could just implement sensors into an interstate quite simply since it is all managed by the government, an open standard could be created by the Govt, and all the car companies could follow.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Imagine it was running SCO
That will be $699 to park
All your car is ours
while(karma less_than enough_karma){karma++}
"is parking really that hard?"
This begs the question:
Is programming any VCR to record a program really that hard?
Is setting the clock on any VCR really that hard?
I say NO, but we (I) live in the USA, land of idiots where VCR's freaked people out that the VCR Plus system had to be created, and now PVR/DVR have come to abolish VCR...but it's pathetic the stupidity of my fellow americans...
THUS
I venture to say that parking for most of us isn't hard, but for morons it is...plus even intelligent slashdotters are not awesome at parallel parking on the streets of San Francisco when trying to run down the 1 or 2 hot chicks that are on TechTV...
Your just driving along and the car gets /. ed now what?
while(karma less_than enough_karma){karma++}
It's too bad, because if people and infrastructures were convinced to support it, more intelligent cars would help to solve a lot of traffic problems. It'll probably happen eventually, but only after someone eventually does it and everyone sees how useful it is.
There are certain driving tasks that computers simply can't perform, such as around town with spontaneous pedestrians and so on. But driving on most parts of the open road isn't quite as complicated, as long as it's sufficiently protected from the less predictible events that occur around populated areas. If specially designed cars were able to join a road that only allowed other such cars to use it, then travel would be much faster and much safer. When entering the open road network, the driver would become a passenger.
Computers react more quickly and more accurately than humans and they can be given more information about the surrounding road than people can. Consequently it would be possible to safely have much faster speeds and much closer following distances, fitting more traffic on the road and moving it much more efficiently and safely than human drivers ever could. Translation: Far fewer traffic jams and people having more time to spend doing other things.
Why are we encouraging laziness? bad enough people already can barely drive, so why make it easier for them to be better screw ups, stop microsoftizing everything people, because if the technology fails, what are people gonna do? Like one dude said, market these to people who honestly need the technology (eg, semi-paralyzed people, older folks, etc) Stop giving people an excuse for being dumbasses.
Which orifice did you pull that number out of?
My thought precisely, when you said that people are "smarter" today. How many 6-year-olds have written ANY popular music, let along Royalty(the persons not the bling)-worthy operatic compositions, in recent history?
"Are people actually smarter now?"
Yes. Broader knowledge of history, math, science, you name it.
Smarter, or more knowledgeable? Make up your mind.
It was what, 20 years ago, when the average Joe thought travelling at light speed meant getting to another star within hours.
Close. It was 25 years ago that George Lucas thought that a parsec was a unit of time. But if you think the modern times are immune to stupidity, watch Bill O'Reilly sometime, and realise that hundreds of thousands of people agree with him on a regular basis.
> what we now need are cars that merge onto highways for us.
Yes! Yes! But there's so much wasted space between cars on the freeway. What if we attach them all with some kind of coupler. Now refueling them would be a pain, so lets just put electric wires over them and let them feed off the juice. Cars are kinda small and a waste of space, what if we make them more boxy. We can call them box cars or something.
Now all those drivers are wasting their time because you only need one driver to umm conduct all those cars. We'll call him a conductor. Hmm, there might be something to this idea of transportation for the public. I can't think of the right word, but my train of thought is really onto something.
I for one am a crappy parallel parker. I'm a great driver.. i just suck at maneuvering my car into a tight spot parallelwise. I would welcome this any day.
Or what about those darn public transportation riders... actually letting other people drive FOR them!
-
on the NHK channel(Japanese TV, nhk.or.jp). It is actually a very spiffy car. It looks sleek and more like a mini-minivan than the regular Prius. Also, this model was black in color.
In the demonstration the man driving the Prius stopped the car a little ahead of a parking spot, then on the LCD screen, pressed the left & right buttons(Im guessing, cuz it was in japanese and too small to read) and then the car parked itself right on the spot intended. The driver at that time was "look ma, no hands". There were front and rear cameras and while parking the car was emitting a sound similar to the "put seatbelt on" one.
> In some cities like San Francisco, it's cheaper
> to pay somebody to keep driving your car around
> in circles than it is to pay for a parking
> garage. Why pay thousands for an automated
> system when you could pay a teenager $6/hour?
Maybe because new cars only start at $10,000/apiece ?
the car would leave your house when you got home from work, but it would only be half way around the block when it's time for you to go to work again.
the reason is the liability. no company can take the liability of one (or more) of it's cars fucking up and killing x number of people. lawyers would go nuts and car insurance wouldn't pay for a company's faulty product.
I saw the demo on the nightly news(in Japan). Pretty cool! I've been in japanese cars with camera equipped visual parking guides but the auto park takes that one step into the future.
Dude, I have lived in Japan for 4 years, and I have to tell you, you're WAY off base with that "can't drive" stereotype. The roads here are fuckin' narrow as shit, and they snake all over the place in older neighborhoods. I've been driving without incident for about 17 years, and I consider myself damned good at it, but I'm continually surprised at how deftly Japanese move their vehicles (including SUV's, station wagons, and other large vehicles) into extremely tight spots without even flinching.
I didn't see any video so I can't say for sure, but here in Japan we don't parallel park that often. Not much street parking available (when you do street park you're usually double or triple parked). What people do do, almost obsessively, is back into parking spaces. That's probably what the Prius was doing.
I leave in Boston and parallel parking in MIT area almost always includes pushing cars at front and back of your vehicle. Does anybody tested self-parking system to push other cars precise enough to get away with bumper scratches only (i.e. witout breaking plastic)?
The Toyota Prius that backed over an old lady because she was small and wearing something that absorbed the signature. The Toyota Prius that smashes itself on Philadelphia curbs... The Toyota Prius...
Yeah, bring this car on.
This is my sig.
I can just see it now... autoupdate feature of self driving car gets hijacked by hackers...
This is my sig.
I completely misread the title as "Self-Panicking Car Available In Japan." I was thinking some Japanese inventor went insane for a second.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Just because I can remember when the Titannic went "Glub-Glub-Glub" don't mean I'm Old.
Now more fat lard arsed Americans won't be able to drive worth shite...
http://www.toyota.co.jp/company/prius/advanced_eq/ pop_ipa.html
"It can, but nobody wants to type man headlts."
Ma'am, I figured out why your headlights wouldn't come on. You had the caps-lock on.
Maybe an automated highway is more complicated than something like a self-parking mechanism, because many more parties are involved
I don't think an automated highway is all that complicated. Basicly rather then a strech of flat road, the vehicel drives on a set of metal rails. For scaleability you can add additional compartments for more passangers, and even additional engines. Not only can you read the paper or use your laptop, but you can even fetch a bite to eat. The need for safty belts is not quite as nessicary as the vehicel travels in one direction and traffic flow is pre-determined. I hear it's all the rage in europe!
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
this sig was brought to you by the letter
note: the real system is likely toned down a bit :).
this sig was brought to you by the letter
...the autopark performs this well :)
http://www.toyota.co.jp/company/prius/advanced_eq/ pop_ipa.html
this sig was brought to you by the letter
but does it fly yet? And where's my jet-pack monkey!
Moreover, being right handed (I just happen to be in a country where cars drive on the right side of the road), I find it is much easier to operate the steering wheel with the right hand and shift with the left, and not the other way around. I just cannot steer with my left hand no matter how hard I try, therefore I just end up crossing my arms and it looks really weird.
Burrying stuff in the road for auto-drive cars isn't going to happen as many other posters have pointed out, it will take forever and cost a rediculous amount of money to implement. Along comes GPS and it starts looking promissing. GPS has come along way from it's old 100' error rate. The current GPS system is down to 3 meters accuracy. WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) when it comes online fully in 2005 will drop that down to 1-2 meters, and it's little brother LAAS (Local Area Augmentation System) down to almost 1/2 meter. Both systems will provide for a vastly improved navigation systems, but will finally have enough accuracy to let us kick back and take a nap on those long road trips. No concrete needs to be poured, just some extra on board equipment in each car and a string of LAAS towers every 5-10 miles or so down the highway.
I am a parking valet. All I have to say is I hope this puts me out of work. I cannot believe how few people can't park their own car. I have seen more $100,000 cars rammed in to cement pillars than I can count. I hope one day I have the disposable income to destroy a car thats worth 8 times my current yearly income (yes I do make about $12,000 a year, shut up and tip a little better you arrogant middle class BMW drivers and yes I am bitter)
When a system is available for widespread use that takes control away from the humans and places it in the hands of predictable machines, what insurance company will insure a car that has a steering wheel?
.forward it over to the makers of the self driving system, most likely insured by another company.
Insurance companies will definitely favor the self driving car over "real drivers." When there is a lawsuit, the insurance lawyers will
Consider drunk driving, for example. With self driving cars, the only way a drunk driver can kill themselves is by drowning in their own vomit. Look for cars that have vomit drains in the floor soon.
When driving in New jersey, the merge procedure is as follows:
1) Match car speed to just faster than ambient traffic
2) Identify a suitable spot to slide into
3) Position my car near the spot
4) Rapidly glance at the driver, don't make much eye contact
5) Move closer to spot until it begins to open up
6) Slide in safely.
The key here is that no one wants to give up their lane position, so you have to give the no choice. When there is an option to have a high speed freeway collision or let the other driver merge in, most will allow the new driver to merge in. It is very important to step near the threshold of danger without stepping over. You don't want to cause an accident or road rage.
Of course, in Seattle, the procedure is entirely different:
1) drive
2) slide into one of the numerous 2-carlength slots
The 520 to I5 South merge, possibly the wors in Seattle, is nothing compared to any number of North 'Jersey merges.
I think a fast copmuter with high resolution data acquisition should be able to solve either merge.
I never knew dvd's could navigate for you, good job toyota!
Speaking at Defcon 12 - Credit Card Networks Revisted: Pen
You apparently haven't seen, like I have, a young victim of the American educational system reach for a calculator to figure out how much to deduct at the register for a 10% discount. I kid you not, she wasn't figuring out the 90%, just the 10% which she then entered as a discount. When I questioned why she used the calculator she stated quite simply that she wasn't good at math. I don't think she ever understood how I gave her the result before the calculator did or why I made a comment to her.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
> What happens when the system crashes? :)
This is actually an insightful question.
With a self-parking car you're basically putting control of a large dangerous piece of equipment in the hands of a computer very near to pedestrians.
In this instance, just having the car stop and brake when it fails seems like a good plan.
But other things it's got do "deal with" will include:
- children running behind the car
- sensor damage and obstruction
- objects it's navigating by (other cars) moving
- uneven surfaces - potholes
- Sensor confusing "obstacles", gates, cliffs
- Mechanical failure - bad clutch, brakes etc.
These are things the developers are going to have to deal with and will have to convince regulatrory bodies that they've got an answer.
(And I'd be amazed if nobody has tried this).
No computers or fancy algorithms.
Fit a car with 4 small wheels that extend on hydraulics until the main wheels are clear of the ground. These wheels would be mounted at 90 degrees to the main wheels alowing true sideways movement.
Park NEXT to your space and deploy the "parking wheels".
Electric motors in the wheels gently move you in sideways and stops when you hit the sidewalk (pavement if you're from the U.K. like me).
In fact you could leave the car jacked up like this to make it easier to get in and out for the infirm.
It would also make wheel changing and inspections far easier.
Obviously this is going to take up room in/under the car but lets face it, some of these SUVs have plenty to spare.
But remember - don't park next to a cliff and nudge the park button with your elbow by accident...
The video was very enlightening. YOU pick where the car should wind up, using a GUI on the dash. YOU press "OK" after a full screen of legalese pops up. THEN the car goes where you told it to go, very slowly.
So I'm waiting for some dude to hack it and have the car follow you (or any target of choice) around like a puppy, or just drive it with a PDA, wristwatch or whatever . . . 007 eat your heart out :-)
Musicians don't die. They just decompose.
BMW had an X5 park itself, using some complicated math formula, MONTHS ago
As if there isn't already too high a fine in the US for parking in a gimp spot.
Have you ever noticed that the gimp spots are generally empty? That's right, most businesses have a huge amount of unused parking because somebody "handicapped" MIGHT show up.
I think it's about time we started seeing some backlash on the "handicapped" for wasting so much of everybody else's time.
Possible solution:
All gimp spots are also 15 minute parking. That way a real gimp won't have to wait more than 15 minutes for a space, and they can drive around looking for a spot just like everybody else.
you humorless fucks... :|
> [previous technology] would put picture phones out of most people's price range.
As opposed to current phone cameras, which are found in cereal boxes. WTF!?!?!? These things are ALREADY out of most people's price range. Journalists often seem to think that everyone makes $50,000+ a year, like them.
Here in Boston I don't need a cark that can park itself, I need a frigg'n parking space!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
I wonder if they're going to release localized versions of this system. Not because of the Right Side/Left Side thing, but because in places like New York, you have to push the front and back vehicles to get out of the parking spot. Especially during the winter.
where did you order it? I haven't been able to find a dealer in PA or MD willing to take an order from me yet!
I post links to stuff here
Great. Take an under-powered hybrid and drop a feature into it that prices it on par with a "normal" car and see who buys it. No one. Then again, why am I worried. Like Linux PDA's, this car won't even be imported. JAV
Dianne Whitmire, Internet Fleet Manager with Carson Toyota in SoCal. I'm actually part of Toyota's Pioneer Preorder program. Toyota had a special marketing campaign for 18,000 "Prius Pioneers" who ordered their 2001 or 2002 Prius through the Internet the first time around. These 18,000 or so customers got a special letter offering them the first chance to purchase a 2004 with specific options, again over the internet. Even w/o self parking, I couldn't resist.
Dianne's got over 17% of the orders within the LA/Southern California region (a pretty large cut in this area considering the number of Toyota dealers). She's got people flying/driving in as far as 1800 miles (Texas and Washington) to buy from her. Carson is closest to the Long Beach port (they get the cars first), and this dealer does ALOT of Prius volume.
Good luck in your search. The cars won't be here in the States till at least 10/15/2003 as production started 8/27/2003. First cars will be dealer demos and pioneer preorder fulfillments. Dealers stock will probably arrive after all of the preorders have been fulfilled.
Come on over to the 2004-Prius Yahoo! Group to learn more. Some of the people in this group have really good dealer recommendations. Some dealers know nothing of the new car, some know alot and already have orders lined up.
Good luck!
$ man woman *
-bash:
That's 2004-Prius Yahoo! Group. Damned copy/paste...
$ man woman *
-bash:
... or someone? Sue the owner, the carmaker, or??? This is one of those times where the laws have to keep up with the innovations.
According to this version, it uses "censors". So that's the secret; some government official follows you around and parks the car for you!
But what happens when the car in front or behind you leaves while you're parked and some other nimrod pulls in, leaving you insufficient room to get out with the same ease that you pulled in. Can they automate pulling out of a tighter squeeze than the one you pulled in to? I doubt it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
My car keeps rebooting?
My boss could use one of these. Most of the car accidents he's had happened while trying to park (just last week, he drove into a 3-foot high rock). He's so bad at parking that everyone else in the company knows to park at least two spaces away from his car.
A British engineer, Archie Butterworth, invented just such a device, known as the Sidler decades ago. He fitted the working prototype to a Jaguar, no less.
Uh, 1/2 meter accuracy is not nearly good enough for driving.
Not only does NanoGator not have a sense of humor, he has no ability whatsoever to detect other people using humor.
You have been warned.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
you could have the system notify the other vehicals it wants in, and the other vehicals would create a gap. thus removing the asshole that just can'y bring himself to let you in front of him...even if he is about to get off the freeway.
This would be a boon to lane changes as well.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I made one for my girlfriend, who I will also be building.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"I for one am a crappy parallel parker. I'm a great driver.."
If you can not parallel park, you are not a great driver, merely another driver.
Me, i'm a great driver, and you would be hard pressed to find a better parellel parker.
traditionally, vehical maintianance is the responsibility of the vehical owner. so If you car is npt functioning properly, then it is your fault. Now if you prove it was a software glitch, that owuld be the manufacturer fault.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I have been watching waaaay too much anime recently.
*honks*
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
You've obviously never been to a major city such as LA or St Louis during heavy traffic. 1/2m is plenty good enough for highway travel, better than what most humman drivers can do.
"CVT transmission" is redundant. CVT == Continuously Variable Transmission. And GM sells at least one, in the Saturn VUE.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Are you saying I'm redundant, I repeat myself, I say things over and over?
I guess I didn't search the internet long enough to find the Saturn. How long has it had a CVT?
I'm not sure, but I think the Vue had an optional CVT from day one, or at least from soon after launch. I drove one and it's reeeal smooooth. Too bad it's not available in the V6 4x4, but CVT's have always suffered from low torque capacity.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.