Toyota Offers Automatic Parallel Parking Option

dstone writes "For drivers who can't parallel park very well, relief is available in Japan. Toyota Motor Corp. is offering a $2,200 option package for its Prius (a gas-electric hybrid car) that includes a computer imaging system which stuffs your car into parallel parking spaces on demand. The driver must manually initiate the process and control the brakes while the car steers in reverse. Some might say if you can't master parallel parking, perhaps you shouldn't be driving. However, the article at Modbee.com points out that in Japan, streets are jammed and parallel parking spaces can be ruthlessly small. 80% of Prius customers have opted for this package. But will the car plug the meter when I run out of time?"

Comments

Old News

[mphase]

Still interesting and all but old as the hills. The technology is even older than Toyota's products as well, handicapped conventions have had similar systems for years.

Re:Old News

[hackstraw]

The first incarnation of such feature that I remember seeing was in the 40s or 50s (on TV, I'm not that old) where the car had a 5th wheel that looked like a spare hanging off of the trunk. With the push of a button the 5th wheel lowered and rotated the back of the car into the parking spot.

Why the brake need?

[Oxide]

Alot of the cars now come with a sensor that alrets the driver when aproaching the the car behind. Couldnt the automatic parking system make use of this? and therefore fully automate the process.

No thanks...

[GreyWolf3000]

I'll keep my manual windows, manual locks, manual transmission vehicle thank you. I like software a lot, but I certainly don't let it take over driving.

I guess learning how to do things on your own is going the way of the do-do bird, so to speak.

If the spaces are so small . . .

[frankthechicken]

. . . is there a program that helps you to get out of that parking space?

I mean it's all very well being able to cram yourself into a tight parking space, but getting out might just be a bit trickier.

USA drivers

[Burb]

Reminds me of a comment made to my wife (English) while she was a student in the USA. She reversed into a parking bay at the mall, and was congratulated. "You must be British" they said "an American wouldn't be able to park in reverse".
Now before you all toast me, I don't hold this to be a general truth. But European cars are smaller and parking bays are often more crowded than their North American counterparts. And I'm led to believe this could be even more so in Japan.
So yay to anything that helps you parallel park in a confined space.

It would be even better if

[Scorchio]

...it could turn all four wheels 90 degrees.

What will they think of next?

[anubi]

Maybe a small set of hydraulically controlled wheels that lower, sideways, so that you pull adjacent to the space you want, then slide in on smaller six-inch solid rubber tires or so?

This is a great feature

[MrRTFM]

Its bloody hard to parallel park when your pissed :)

Seriously, this is just one step closer to the car that drives itself - its going to take a long time for the public and the laws to allow this to happen, but eventually it will happen.

Re:Parking Assist

[Max Romantschuk]

And now for the major limitation: The system works only in situations where the car can continuously back up into a space -- not for those tight spots where you must inch your way into a space by going back and forth, wrestling with the wheel.

I'm not sure about the physics involved, but my experience tells me that the going back and forth technique seems to have rather diminishing returns... often I find that redoing the whole thing (driving back out on the street and revising my entrance vector) is more worthwhile. The fact that most cars only have wheels which turn in the front could be significant.

So maybe the major limitation is not that major after all? I might be seriously wrong though ;)

PS. Offtopic sidenote: It's nice to see the Linux big boys in here with random Finnish coders like myself :)