The mind boggles. What environmental or genetic factors are making parking increasingly difficult? Surely it's not space size. Municipalities have been accommodating gas-guzzling behemoths (a.k.a. full-sized SUVs) since the 70's. Less competent drivers? What about all the millions of teens who can lap the Nurburgring's Nordschleife in under nine minutes, albeit in a videogame? According to VW [via ForbesAutos.com ], the answer is… "As vehicles grow larger and parking lots more crowded, getting in and out of parked vehicles becomes increasingly difficult." Ah, getting in and out! So it is a genetic thing. That's code for more fat people, right? And now that I think about it, maybe VW's talking about the Eurozone, where governments never met a revenue maximizer they couldn't justify with some treehugging spiel (buy a smaller car, you CO2-belching bastard). Anyway, yada yada Lexus' expensive, largely useless and unloved self-parking system trickling down to VW. At least Forbes asks the question: does anybody actually want this shit? Well, no, obviously. Next up, will these kind of toys break and suck the cash right out of your wallet? Well, yes, obviously.
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Oh boy, just imagine the scene when that system goes wrong. How did we become such a perceived convenience obsessed society?
wow! hopefully this technology will trickle down (just in a different final application)…
does it have different buttons for parallel parking, pulling in, backing in, etc…
got to love the gurgle of the diesel engine!
The problem is girly bumpers. You know, the painted kind that gets scratched whenever you park in a robust manner. I for one refuse to drive a car that is dainty.
In civilized places such as in France, they don’t even use the parking brake. One car just softly pushes the next around when parallel parking, and presto, there is space for one and all. But in Germany, people have an anal-retentive fear of touching other cars’ bumpers. So VW developed yet another over-engineered solution to a simple problem.
Speaking of parking, what has always amused me is that promotion of the Smart invariably shows it parked perpendicular to the curb between two parallel-parked cars. Either that or three Smarts in one space. Either of which will get your Smarties at the least ticketed, at the most towed, or possibly even knocked over by the un-parking Sequoia in front of it.
I remember at the introduction of the self-parking Lexus in Austria–yes, one of those junkets Farago so loves–they “demonstrated” the equipment by letting journos auto-park in a space between two parked Lexuses that seemed half a city block apart. I made them re-park the two with a standard parking space between them…but then they wouldn’t let me drive the auto-park car, said it was too tricky and a Lexus engineer would have to do it.
Count me among the “don’t touch my car” crowd. I really do view the disregard for the welfare of others’ cars a serious breakdown in the moral fabric of our society. What does it say about our values if it is perfectly acceptable to cause $100+ of damage to my car just to save $20 not parking in a garage, or just because someone is too lazy to learn to parallel park properly? You would never do that to a friend’s car – it’s only “okay” because it belongs to a stranger. Sorry, that’s not good enough.
That… is sad.
Useless..and who is liable when the self-parking car hits another vehicle? The owner or the manufacturer?
If you can’t pull off a basic parallel parking maneuver then you shouldn’t have a driver’s license in the first place.
I can’t imagine that the self-parking machinery won’t add quite signficantly to the weight of the car (anyone have any figures?). In this case, in this era of rising gas prices ($3.80 at my local shell station yesterday in Belmont MA!), I see this as a non-starter.
Alright, I get that it’s useless technology. But just for 30 seconds, I saw a world without other careless morons flinging their doors open into my car.
I totally agree with brownie. People have no respect for other’s cars anymore.
We have an 800-foot-long driveway that dead-ends in a large, circular turnaround area. On summer weekends, New Yorkers drive up it–we’re in a forest where hiking is popular–despite the large “private drive” signs at the entrance.
Usually, there are two Porsches and a Volvo parked in the circle, and I have to block the driveway with one of the cars so the drive-once-a-month Manhattanites can’t get in, else they’ll richochet from fender to fender while turning around.
Then they come and find me and whine that they can’t back up down the driveway–it’s beyond their capability. Don’t even ask them about parallel parking.
How about a little better quality before the gimmicks? I love the gimmick. Have zero use for it though. I would prefer my Cabrio to have lasted without as many repairs though – you, know more like my Honda.
I see it coming…
Hal…park the car.
Hal, take me to the bank.
Hal, GodDamn it!
Now come on…unlock the doors and let me out of the car!!!
So, why does the article talk about parallel parking but the video demonstrates backing into a parking spot? Parallel parking means being parallel to the curb, not the car beside you.
Its soon over for us car nuts.
My friend once told me the AA jet he flies is such a wonderful machine, all they needed was a dog in the cockpit.
A dog, I asked?
Ya…to bite his hand whenever he tried to F#@K something up.
The machine was better than the human.
So soon, maybe sooner than I think, the time will be gone when you feel that something special between you and the car.
No more feeing like somebody cornering around the hills.
No…just punch it in, enjoy the scenery, sitting in a circle and talking to the wife.
Hmmmm
You will sound like grandfather talking about the good ol’ days.
Roadtster:
So, why does the article talk about parallel parking but the video demonstrates backing into a parking spot? Parallel parking means being parallel to the curb, not the car beside you.
D’oh! Text amended.
My sister lives in Seattle, and she says that she has trouble with her ’95 Taurus because she often can’t get out of her car when she parks. The car is on its last legs and when it goes she’s getting something smaller – partially because of economy, but also because she wants to be able to open her door when she parks her car.
So there is some truth to this, and it’s not just fat Americans either.
Now that they don’t make them anymore, those dent-resistant plastic-bodied Saturns don’t seem quite so bad, do they? (Well, I guess they do. But they didn’t have dents in the sides.)
If the problem is simply one of opening doors in tight spaces, then we just need to mandate that all cars come with gullwing doors as standard.
I foresee no problems with this idea whatsoever…
Forget the parking bit, I want a car with that funky blue tractor beam!
@nayrb5 – how about this for cool car doors…