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Self-Parking Cars Coming To U.S.

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the parking-is-hard dept.

Rio writes "Vehicles that are able to parallel park themselves while drivers sit and relax behind the wheel are coming to the United States, according to a Local 6 News report. New Toyota hybrid cars are now available in Britain with a $700 "parking assist" option. Local 6 news showed video of a driver sitting and allowing the car's steering wheel to turn on its own as it pulled into a tight parking spot on a London street. The reporter never touched the wheel as the car parked itself.Toyota says expect to see the technology pop up in the U.S. soon." Here is our previous coverage of their release in Japan.

2 of 610 comments (clear)

  1. Liability issues by Samir+Gupta · · Score: 5, Informative

    This has been available for several years now in Japan and other non-US markets. The reason why Toyota didn't release this tech in the US was fear of liability lawsuits in the US' sue-happy culture if something went wrong. Have they changed their stance on this?

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    -- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
  2. Re:Just wait for the lawsuits to start... by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article says that the driver is responsible for controlling the speed of the vehicle via the break pedal. :)

    So this really isn't all that much different from someone being run over by your average driver.

    --

    "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

    Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.