Self-Parking Cars Coming To U.S.

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.

Comments

A Tight Spot???

[Wellerite]

a tight parking spot You must be joking - you could fit a Hummer in that spot.

Re:A Tight Spot???

[cgenman]

I distinctly remember a car from the 50's which had a 5th wheel which would come out the back. This allowed you to drive head-first into a parking spot, then flip a switch to cause the hydrolic wheel to come down and swing the back end off the car until it was parallel.

Does anyone else remember this car? Any footage or info online?

Who's liable for screwups?

[mobiux]

So if this system screws up, mis-calculates the available space and dents a ferrari, is toyota going to pony up?

Autovalet

[Doc Ruby]

Now if these cars would just park themselves far from where they drop me off, we can get rid of street parking in Manhattan. The cars can park themselves outside the city center where parking is plentiful/cheap/free, and we can triple the capacity of our existing streets.

Re:Wow ...

[Tmack]

In Georgia, you would get shot for doing such a thing... see this video, shot here by GSU students. Abiding by the speed limit is one thing, but holding up traffic while trying to correct everyone else is not a good idea. The left lane is the "fast lane" in the sense that you are moving "Faster" than those in the lanes to your right. Here, we have signs stating that specifically: "Slower traffic keep right". Meaning if you are not passing, move into the right lane. In Germany and other countries you will be arrested if you are found driving in the left lane and not passing, the left lane is strictly for passing there.

tm

Great...

[Chicane-UK]

Excellent. Another 'convenience' feature which helps out people who are clearly far too STUPID to use a car.

I remeber reading an article recently that put people with high end, well kitted out cars in cars with NO driver aids and subjected them to a few tests such as skid pans and high speed maneuvres(sp?!) - the results were fairly predictable. Most were so used to the features that automatically kicked in when they did something stupid that when faced with a car that didn't have them, they had NO idea what was going on and lost control in all circumstances.

I personally feel that there needs to be more driver education and less dependence on these driver aids! I appreciate they might be important in an accident of course but not all circumstances where driver aids may be used could be classed as accidents!