follow the link to the official 27 minute introduction of 2004 prius to the world. yes from toyota headquarters, yes that means the steering wheel and driver's door are on the wrong side. yes the footage shows them driving on the wrong side of the yellow line, and worse of all yas they are speaking in japanese (any translaters out there???) http://www.toyota.co.jp/company/prius/en/ you will probably need a broadband connection to see it all or have a lot of time on your hands. now we can all see how the auto-park function works (that we didn't get). and a horrible (head on) crash test (not recommended for the squeemish good luck sid
The self-parking part is around the 18 minute mark and makes it appear even more to be a "fluff" option - I don't think any American would ever use it. Takes soooooo long.
fluff i agree.. could you imagine circling the block for 20 minutes in traffic, finally finding a spot, and expecting all the traffic behind you to be that patient.... while you are stopped ahead, pushing buttons, some nut in an escalade will push you out the way and take the space... no wonder they didn't ship it over here, that would have been the second public relations nightmare (second only to the distribution method) sid
I agree that the parking feature is slow, and it might be fluff, but you won't always have some impatient clown in an Esclade behind you. AND, folks, you have to admit that it is pretty cool technology. At least the Japanese aren't simply marketing horsepower and speed. Bob[/b]
Well he's no Steve Jobs. Maybe we can get him Keynote. I am glad that I am not getting replaced at parking by a computer quite yet. I wish I could understand more that one word in 20. Maybe some smart person with much more linguistic capability that I could redo the audio track in English (sort of like the Kung Fu movies )
realize that the Japanese dont have the space we have. parking is a major problem in Tokyo and auto park feature is a valuable feature.
Nuts on the auto-parking! I've seen drivers in Seville (looking down from my 4th-floor apartment window) park in spaces not more than a foot longer than their car. It's called the human brain: it can learn to do stuff. And for the parking-impaired, all we really need are curb feelers (you young pups won't remember those) and one of those antennas on the bumper so you can tell where the front of the car is.
Guess I'm well on my way to Old Guy 'cause I remember them. Don't know why they disappeared other than maybe people thought they weren't cool.
ummm i remember seeing them at the auto parts store. it was an add on aftermarket thing. i dont see why you couldnt put them on any car. i didnt examine them too close but did notice that they were like $15 or something. something i thought was waaay out of line.
The auto parking may have seemed to take longer in the video as they were explaining how to do it, what all the steps are, how to choose the spot, etc. It probably gets faster as you get used to it.
Yeah, probably, but with that much space even I could parallel park. Now, if they figured out how to make all 4 wheels turn 90 degrees, so you could pull up to a space, and then just slide right into it...
i dont care so much for the park assist feature though it is a cool feature. but i sure would like to have the back-up camera they have! :mrgreen:
i read part of a brosure online and it says that the auto park feature took up to 3 mins or something to park. i dont remember the exact figure but it seemed like a very long time to me.
