Toyota to launch self-parking car

Now, while I think this could be useful on some larger vehicles that are more difficult to park, I really find it very easy to parallel park my Prius. It's certainly 1000 times easier than my Jeep was.

 

this is for europe i think?

 

Yes, I mentioned in another tread that Europe would get the self parking feature a few weeks ago.

But there are one disturbing ting that was rumoured:

If you choose this feature - you cannot order the JBL Sound System...

Does anyone know someting about this? Perhaps one of our Japanese members, since they have had this feature a long time already?

Thanks
Henrik

 

Wow, if this is true, then it's incredibly good news. It's cheaper and better to have an aftermarket sound system than to get ripped off by the 'premium' one.

 

Sounds like UK to me. The £ is a dead giveaway.

Nate

 

Darn, i wish my 2006 had that option, i SUCK at parallel parking.

 

My Prius does not have JBL primium sound but all Prii in Japan have the auto park feature included with the NAV package. Since JBL is an option on any Prius here, I would assume it does not conflict with the auto park option.

I, however, have never even pushed the auto park button in my car. To quotoe:

"For the system to work, the driver merely presses a button on the dash when being stopped next to a parking space.

The car uses radar sensors to see if the parking space is big enough, and then takes the job from there - it takes over the steering wheel and the accelerator, to neatly put the Prius in the waiting parking space."


I don't think it's that easy. I would love to figure out how to use it, but I can't read Japanese and my wife is not all that big on reading "techy" things. Consequently, she is the one who has to program our detinations into the NAV and I'm sure there're a lot of cool features I'm missing out on.

Anyway, back to auto park. When I bought my car, the dealer tired to show me how this feature works, but I don't think he had read the manual either. It looks like it takes a lot of setting up and marking obsticles by putting little flags on them while the display is in backup camera mode. I could take 5 or more minutes to get it all set up before it will park you. Now, you can program it for various locations, so you could have it set to park you at home or work, and that could be handy.

At some point I will find out how to use this feature, but I've never had that much trouble parking on my own anyway. And with the backup camera, which also displays the path in which the car will travel according to how you turn the steering wheel, parking my Prius is a breeze!

 

Thanks skijapan!

Well, perhaps good old James B. Lansing (JBL) and the autopark can live side by side after all!

But in the article a "radar" is mentioned - I thought that the current system only uses a backupcamera and software but needs user input - and has no sensors whatsoever..

Anyone?

Henrik

 

ya, maybe the Europe version has an actual radar. I'm pretty sure mine doesn't, just the backup cam and software that habel mentioned.

I don't know about other countries, but lately I've been seeing ads on TV for cars that scan the road ahead for deer and people. They also recognize if you are approaching the car in front of you too fast and warn you and maybe even slow down for you.

Now even bigger idiots can drive!!?!?? ...and feel safe falling asleep while doing so?

I'm not sure wheather to be excited or frightened...

 

The backup camera... does it default to reverse the image as if you were looking in your rear view mirror, or is it just a video stream from the camera?

I think if it weren't reversed, it would mess me up.

 

I don't think so. It just works. When you turn the steering wheel like you want want to go left, the guides go to the left, and the car follows. The cam has a bit of a fisheye view so that you can see a wider angle, but it's not very distorted. It's really easy to use after the first couple tries.

 

*SIGH*

another case of americans left out in the cold. probably not as useful around here as a few have mentioned, but not having the option to get it really rankles me sometimes.

i have a friend who just returned from Japan and the electronic gadgets they have there just blow american consumerism into the 19th century. wireless connectivity is a given there, rarity here. MMP (massively mega pixel...ok i admit...made that one up) cellphones have been there for years. we still dont have em. she said average MP count was 4-5 MP with ones even higher than that. MP3 cellphones, while just being introduced here have been there for years. this list goes on and on.

ps... as a waaay off topic comment

skijapan; LOVE your avatar. do you have a bigger pic of it? did you photoshop it?

 

Thank all the trial lawyers here in the USA for your case of the rankles.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on jury duty. During one of the breaks in the trial, I went out to the front steps of the courthouse for some fresh air.
On the corner was a semi-minor fender bender between a Big Rig and an SUV. No injuries . . . but there were still three lawyers walking around taking pictures with their camera phones and passing out business cards. NO KIDDING! And lawyers wonder why they have such a bad reputation.

 

I do have a bigger pic, but there doesn't seem to be a way to upload an image anymore. Any ideas?

I just recently got Photoshop and this was one of my first attempts at using the extract feature. What great software!

 

well up until about 2 weeks ago, i uploaded a pic to my old photo album on the old site. did you try that. you can also upload pics on each post...