Good car! Nice car! Rollover! Park!

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Filed under: Tech (http://www.autoblog.com/category/tech/), Volkswagen (http://www.autoblog.com/category/volkswagen/), Driving (http://www.autoblog.com/category/driving/)
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/04/vw_pav.jpg (http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/232417/)

The honchos at VW decided that Park Assist (PA) wasn't enough. That's where the car parallel parks itself while you twiddle your thumbs behind the wheel, and when the Fasten Seat Belt sign is extinguished you can get out and go on about your business. The latest development from VW is called Park Assist Vision (PAV), and it will park the car for you in any kind of spot -- parallel or perpendicular -- and you don't even need to be in the car.

A PAV-equipped car is ringed with cameras and ultrasonic sensors, and when you find a spot you want, you select it on a touchscreen. You place the car in "P" and get out if you have that much faith in technology not to scratch your paint. Your remote control keyfob tells the car what to do from then on, and the car parks itself, shuts down and locks itself up, as any happy android car should.

PAV is still in development, but it's a neat idea. It could especially come in handy when trying to slip into one of those ever-shrinking "compact" parking spaces, since it's so hard to get out of the car once you get in the space. Now if they could develop a feature that actually locates available parking spaces for you, we'd be in business.

[Source: Autocar (http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/232417/)]

[p38arover]

There are a few women drivers (I've not seen men do it) that need this at Springwood where I work. If they can't get into a spot (often 2 car lengths long!) they just nose in and leave it parked at 30-45 degrees with the bum of the car out in the trafffic. Seriously! They never seem to get booked.

So much for "close and parallel"

[Sprint]

watched a woman try 3 times to get her ford escape into a parking spot the other night...... she gave up and drove off to find somewhere else to park, so i drove my prado (work car) straight in

[p38arover]

I went to the motor registry last week. When I arrived a woman was trying to reverse a small car into a parallel parking spot. She tried a couple of times and kept straddling the white line between two bays - almost straight down the centre line of the car.

I went in, did what was needed (and anyone who has been to a Sydney Registry knows how long that can take :(). When I came out, she was still trying to park in the same spot. :eek:

Unfortunately for her, she appeared to be doing a driving test.

:D :D

[p38arover]

watched a woman try 3 times to get her ford escape into a parking spot the other night...... she gave up and drove off to find somewhere else to park, so i drove my prado (work car) straight in

I think it's a spatial recognition thing with women. However, they are at a disadvantage.




How often have they been told that this:

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is 12 inches? :D