The automotive world is a cutthroat place. New technologies pop up all the time, vying for attention and our hard-earned dollars. Some are so good that they eventually become an industry standard, like power windows and keyless entry. Others burst on to the scene with great fanfare, only to seemingly disappear years later.
I’ve covered many technologies in that latter category, from Jeep’s Predator system to Volvo’s creepy heartbeat sensor. But there’s another more recent example that recently popped into my head. What happened to cars that can park themselves?
Just over a decade ago, this was the hottest new feature out. If you were scared of parallel parking, or simply tired of the chore, you could have your car do it for you. Just about every automaker was rushing to fit this tech to their cars. And yet, here we are in 2024, and I don’t think I’ve heard anyone mention it in years. What gives?
Park Yourself
The basic technology required for automatic parking is relatively common these days, but was astounding in the late 2000s. Computing power and image recognition had advanced to the point where you could do all kinds of crazy things with the right algorithm. You could slap a bunch ultrasonic rangefinders and cameras on a car, throw in the right logic, and have the thing park itself by letting the electric power steering turn the front wheels.
The technology has a long history. The Volkswagen Futura of 1989 allegedly featured self-parking, though it never went beyond the concept phase. It was Toyota that put it into production vehicles, with the 2003 Toyota Prius featuring ‘Intelligent Parking Assist.” This system could handle parallel parking for the driver, with later versions adding the ability to reverse park, as well. The user merely had to approach a space and activate the system, before outlining the desired parking area on the infotainment screen. The car would then take over maneuvering itself into the space.
Lexus would pickup the system for its luxury models a few years later. Other automakers were simultaneously rushing to develop their own versions. It became the hottest new feature out, and seemed to be the herald of a bright new age. Soon, surely, our cars wouldn’t just park themselves, they’d drive themselves, too!
Like so many new technologies, though, the reality on the ground wasn’t quite how it looked in the glossy sales brochures. Reviews were often mixed. Even by 2010, automotive outlets were complaining that systems were slow, unreliable, or unable to straighten up in a spot. Other complaints included the fact that the self-parking systems often required more parking space than a skilled driver, and that they simply didn’t do as good a job as a human.
Regardless, the systems proliferated anyway. By the mid-2010s, you could get a parking assist on everything from a Nissan Qashqai to a Holden Commodore. In the latter case, the self-parking system hilariously failed during at least one press event for the VF model’s big debut. It also required the driver to handle braking, lest it back into a neighboring vehicle for you.
The real problem, though? Hardly anyone actually cares.
A quick search will turn up buckets of forum posts, all asking the same thing—does anybody actually use automatic parking assists? Those with Subarus, Audis, Citroens and BMWs are all asking the same thing. While you can find some evangelists out there, many more express their distaste for these systems. Common complaints include the assists taking too long to park, or moving erratically and risking damage to the vehicle. A lot of people note they used the feature once upon first getting their car, but never found the need to enable it again.
We can openly speculate about why this might be. Ultimately, I think it comes down to a lack of trust. A skilled driver knows they can parallel park, and will rely on their own skills to do so. To them, the system is useless. The systems can be anxiety inducing, too. The driver often has to sit nervously with their foot over the brake, not knowing if the automated system is going to stop in time before clouting a neighboring car.
Volkswagen is one of the few automakers to shoot a real video of their parking assist in action. Most rely on animated footage.
The story is worse for lesser-skilled drivers who might find themselves nervous in tough parking situations. They often worry about hitting other vehicles, or holding up traffic. You’d think that a parking assistant would be perfect here, but alas, no. A digital system that takes several steps to activate doesn’t get around their anxiety about holding up traffic. Neither does the slow performance of many parking assists. Furthermore, they must tangle with the possibility that the parking assist might fail. In that case, they’d be left hanging halfway out of a park, having likely enraged multiple drivers around them. Plus, they’d then have to find a way to extract their vehicle from the precarious situation they’d gotten into.
Indeed, a study by Budget Direct in 2023 found that trust in these systems was remarkably low. Less than 24% of drivers surveyed had “considerable or complete trust” in an automated parking system. 36% had “minimal or no trust” in the technology. Similarly, in 2015, AAA found that 72% of American drivers wouldn’t trust self-parking vehicle technology in a parallel parking situation.
You might think these drivers are rare, but they’re everywhere. According to a study by The Zebra, 49% of Americans suffered from “parallelophobia”—a fear of parallel parking. In the UK, AutoTrader found driver’s heart rates spiked by over 57% during parallel parking maneuvers. 18.7% of drivers surveyed said they’d rather visit the dentist than attempt a parallel park.
Tech Woes
The plight of the parking assist is not uncommon. Indeed, the phenomena is commonly referred to as the Gartner hype cycle. When a new technology hits the scene, there is a huge rush of publicity and excitement as the world buys into the hype. This is followed by the “Trough of Disillusionment,” when the broader public realizes the technology can’t do half of what was initially promised by the media. Usually, this is followed by a general upward slope in capability as the technology matures and actually becomes useful.
It’s true that parking assists have improved over the years. In 2015, AAA found that drivers using the systems experienced 81 percent fewer curb strikes in controlled testing. Self-parking systems also parked 10% faster than the human drivers, and were able to park 37% closer to the curb.
Nevertheless, parking assists have fallen out of favor to a degree. The technology is no longer shiny and new, and it doesn’t serve as a point of difference anymore. Indeed, use rates are low enough that some automakers are ditching the option entirely.
Notably, Ford made the call to abandon its Active Parking Assist earlier this year. Ford COO Kumar Galhotra announced publicly that deleting the hardware would save the company roughly $60 per vehicle, or a total of $10 million a year. “Very, very few people are using it, so we can remove that feature,” said Galhotra.
Other automakers continue to stick with the technology, barring a few that temporarily cut the option during the COVID-19 supply chain crises. Tesla also temporarily cut the feature when it deleted ultrasonic sensors on several models. Just about every automaker has it available on some models, with some offering it as standard across their range.
Despite it’s popularity, almost nobody talks about it. The vast majority of automotive reviews don’t mention it, and it seems few customers are asking for it. In my time with the Alfa Romeo Tonale, I didn’t even notice a button for it. And yet, it’s apparently available most everywhere you look.
If you’re buying a new car, you can probably get it with a parking assist. Whether you use it or not is another thing entirely. But it seems this is one new technology that permeated the automotive world whether we gave a damn or not.
Image credits: Ford, Tesla, Holden
Trough of Disillusionment: sounds like a good name for the Cybertruck, which promises to have Tesla Park Assist sometime soon.
I’d rather just have 360 degree camera systems so I can see exactly what I’m backing into.
I have this and I use it occasionally. It seems to work well in my experience as long as the parking spot you find is fairly generously sized. That being said, I don’t think having/not having it would ever factor into a decision to buy a car.
I’ve had a couple rental cars with this feature over the last several years, and in my experience the systems are as the article describes: buggy, slow, and error out a lot.
I also used to live in a vacation town with very few parking lots outside of the grocery stores. Parallel parking was the norm, and several of the busiest streets were old and relatively narrow. I watched first-hand people park with these systems (especially Ford’s) and it was always a crap shoot if it would work or fail midway. On the chance it did work, the cars would consistently park at least 12″ from the curb (the max limit from the curb allowable per city ordinance), and often it would be greater than 24″. It became a game with our family that when we rolled into town and got stuck behind a traffic slowdown on one of those streets, we would guess if it was a person struggling to parallel park on their own or a Ford Explorer or Expedition parked so far away from the curb that it blocked a traffic lane.
Like so many of modern car innovations, parking assist is technology in search of a problem. The vast majority of drivers do not parallel park more than a couple times a year. Those who do it more often can beat the automation after a few parks. It’s no longer a thing because marketing departments have moved on to the next gadget. Very few customers ever cared.
I demonstrate this system in new cars a lot. The problem is, the morons that actually need the system can’t even line the car up to start it.
I say “pull up to a space you want to park in like you were gonna park yourself and come to a stop” and they are at a 45° angle to the spot 6 car lengths away.
Had one guy that kept letting go of the wheel and brakes without ever hitting the start button for the self-park.
Ah, the elusive mind-control parking program.
I only parallel park a handful of times a year, but I still trust my own (admittedly rusty) abilities more than an automated system. My car doesn’t have such a system, but still.
The one in my late-model X5 is good and can be controlled entirely with the iDrive knob, but I’m a decent parallel parker and don’t use it.
There is a knack to parallel parking;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRXW7Ne1_88&t=40s
I’ve never used one of these, but it seems like it has to be at least a bit more useful than the feature on the Kia EV6 that allows you to move the car forward or back with a button on the key fob (and enough clear space around the vehicle).
These gimmicks really mostly appeal to people who will rarely, if ever, use them. Most people who fear parallel parking rarely parallel park. I suspect they would also fear letting the car do it, since they’re relinquishing control and still taking on the risk.
I prefer the OG park-assist, the “5th wheel” as shown here on a few prewar cars and my favorite, a ’51 Cadillac:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyjfv3AnuYM
United States being around 5% parking lot has really killed the need to use this ever. I can’t honestly think of the last time I’ve had to parallel park.
I got my driver’s license in Florida and they don’t even have parallel parking on the driving test.
But they do have gator evasion, and the appropriate way to park and signal for meth.(Panhandle region only)
This is a complete and utter falsehood.
Proper meth pick-up parking (diagonally across a minimum of two (2) perpendicular spaces) is a mandatorily-tested skill statewide.
I lived in Athens, GA, home of University of Georgia, and it was always fun to watch the kids (hell, adults too) from the burbs and exurbs of Atlanta try to parallel park downtown.
lol try more like 20%. What an utter waste of usable land.
It’s a feature that only appeals to suburban dwellers who have anxiety about parking in the big city. 99% of their driving is in an environment that (unfortunately) caters to cars with parking lots everywhere.
Anyone that actually lives in a city that requires parallel parking can do it faster and in tighter spots. Plus they probably aren’t street parking a shiny new car that actually has this tech because they don’t want their bumpers dinged up.
Pretty much. I live in NY and ever since I moved out of Queens I really only parallel park when I go somewhere in the 5 boroughs. On Long Island I almost never do. Would I like a system like this in my car? Maybe if I drove something huge. But even then I’d just learn the size of my car and park accordingly.
I was given a Lincoln MKZ as a service loaner and I used the parallel parking system as a novelty to try and because I was unfamiliar with the size of the car. Worked shockingly well so it was good for that rare confluence of events.
I used to be the designated family parallel parker when we lived in a town with main street parallel parking with no time limit, but I think it’s been at least 10 years since I parallel parked. Even main streets now are generally wider with diagonal to the curb parking where we are.
So what I’m saying is, until this article, I haven’t thought of parallel parking for years, so as a feature in a car I’d look for, also wouldn’t even think of it.
I lived near a tourist beach that was parallel parking only and it was painful to watch people struggle. Witnessed the driver behind a person failing to parallel park for 5 minutes walk up to the other cars window, introduced themselves as a driving instructor and offered to park for them! They happily got out of their car and let the stranger do it.
I live near a tourist beach and find it pretty enterntaining to watch people struggle. 🙂 I feel okay saying this since I myself suck at parallel parking.
Some technology in modern vehicles (sensors, cameras, blind spot monitoring, etc.) are useful features that help keep the driver safe in unpredictable traffic with increasingly distracted drivers.
Park assist never fell under the ‘useful’ banner to me. A couple of my vehicles had it, but I never used it. I’m fine with my cars having that much less technology that could go haywire, so I shan’t shed any tears over this.
I always thought it would be useful because it’s supposed to find spots that will fit the car and can allegedly fit into one that’s only 18 inches longer than the car itself. I’ve never used one myself, though, and although it took a while, I’m finally past the point where I would regularly turn at too sharp an angle and bump the curb. I could see the perpendicular function being useful for backing into tight spaces in a crowded garage, but even then I doubt I’d be patient enough to use it much.
The single biggest parallel parking aid is the rear view camera. A complete game changer, particularly on newer cars with high trunk lids. In 2006 I traded a 1994 Taurus SHO for a 2001 Chrysler 300M (baby seat would not fit in the SHO). I immediately found I could not see a damn thing out the back window due to how high the trunk was. You were backing up damn near blind every time.
As someone who works from home 4 days a week, sits right in front of a window, and lives on the closest non-zoned street to wrigley field, I couldn’t disagree more. When there’s roughly 2.5-4 feet of room, I’d give your average Chicago driver using their neck and mirrors an 80% success rate and for people that try to do it with the camera I’d give it about 15%, and both their successes and failures take about twice longer than a “normal” driver.
Parking by braille. I learned to park over 30 years ago and can fit cars in spaces they shouldn’t.
It’s not as bad as you’d think, but the biggest offenders of parking by touch seem to be the ones that use their rear view cameras. It’s as if visibility in the forward direction is even worse than in reverse. Drivers using their mirrors tend to do a slight touch when reversing, however the ones that used their cameras, then proceed to go full speed ahead into the car ahead of them. One thing that really seems to help weed out the bad parkers though is it’s a high-stress environment as it’s a one-way street with parallel parking on both the left and the right side.
My first time using one was when my parents came to visit me and had me drive their Tundra. I offered to let my dad do the parking, since it’s his vehicle and he’s a log truck driver, so maneuvering shouldn’t be a problem. He told me he doesn’t parallel park and I could either do it or go find a parking lot.
It was absolutely simple to park that thing with the camera helping out. It was as easy to park as the Focus I had at the time.
It’s that 360 degree bird’s eye camera that really helps with parallel parking even more than the back up camera. I am good at parallel parking, but I learned years ago when I was in college. Cars didn’t have such wide pillars. They weren’t so big. The width of the car in front of the spot can throw off the angle that you use to turn to back into the spot.
My car (2016 C class) has automatic parking. I have used it once, just to try it out. I wouldn’t trust it to park in a tricky spot. I wouldn’t need the help in an easy spot.
As someone else mentioned, it’s a little weird to figure out where to place the car before you hit the button. Sometimes the car brings up a prompt on the dash asking if I want to begin park assist.
I would never buy this feature as a stand alone. No doubt it’s bundled with other driver assistance features.
I agree. I have a Fit, and I want the camera for lot parking and parallel parking. For the former, I wind up between two Suburbans and I’m otherwise blinded; for the latter, I have the angle that sees up to an inch from the car behind me.
I think I’m fairly decent at parallel parking even though I live in an area where I almost never have to do that, but I did enjoy the feature on my CTS V sport. I thought it worked really well. I’ve even considered retrofitting it to my S5, but realized it’s not really worth it since I’ll use it maybe once a year. I don’t really miss it, but I wouldn’t mind having it at all.
Now, active cruise, that’s a feature I can no longer live without.
Mt passengers applaud my parallel parking skills. I took my driver test in the Jurassic era on an intermediate with no power steering.
I remember testing a Cherokee KL pre-production prototype before it came out in 2013 and they had self parking as a feature on it. We were helping with a Jeep/car and driver promo and they wanted a video vignette on this feature. I remember it taking way longer to film than I thought it would because it never was quite right. And this was a static demo in a wide open space.
I remember trying it once myself and thinking “Who the hell has the time for this?”. You had to set it up just right, push all the right buttons and then wait as it backed in like it was a student driver.
It did okay but never better than even a reasonably competent driver could do and it took 5x as long and was more work.
I live in Utah and I’ve long advocated for the idea of NOT plowing residential streets. My thinking is that if you can’t get out onto the main roads in whatever you are driving…you probably shouldn’t be out driving. (we don’t get so much snow that you need a lifted 4×4).
Same story here. If you can’t park…you need more practice before being out on the road with actual drivers.
If we can’t trust automation to do low speed parking it doesn’t bode well for Level 4 and 5 autonomous driving, which is many orders of magnitude more difficult.
A bit of braggadocio here: I can parallel park Suburban-sized vehicles in fairly tight spots with little difficulty so what’s the point? The feature is useless to me. Whether it’s useful to others is for them to determine.
The parking system is broken on my VF, which is not such a big deal since I only used it once to see how it worked. Hilariously and obviously, you not only had to handle the braking but also the clutch. So basically it just turned the wheel for you.
I’ve tried these systems in rentals and, not to pump my own tires, I can parallel park faster and better than the system. In many cases, the car didn’t even see a spot as suitable even though you could land a jumbo jet in it.
I also have the luxury of experience. I grew up and still live in the city where the ability to parallel park is a necessity. Hell, my high school didn’t even have a parking lot; students had to parallel park on the street. Folks who live in the suburbs and rural areas don’t need to use that skill on a regular basis.
Oy, what’s the matter with that space over there?
Its too tight.
Too tight? You can land a jumbo fucking jet in there!
Hey, leave him alone, he’s a natural, ain’t you Tyrone?
A natural fucking idiot!
That is 100% where I pulled that phrase, minus the “fucking”. Wow. I never thought someone would make that connection. Well done, friend.
Coworkers Volvo wouldn’t work in winter- the lines in the parking lot aren’t distinct enough to work in summer
Let’s be honest, a large portion of people never need to parallel park in their life.
I think over the 20 years of driving under my belt, I’ve had to do it less than 10 times.
It’s one of those things that people who live in a place where this feature could be useful already can do the task and don’t need the feature. People who don’t live in a place where it isn’t useful don’t need it.
I had a boss who bought a car with that, a Fusion hybrid, he used it a few times right when he first got the car, but always just to show off the feature (one time, we went out to lunch and he drove around aimlessly for almost half an hour trying to find a good spot to demonstrate). The system seemed to work well enough, but after the initial excitement, he went back to parallel parking normally, because he claimed the self parking was just too damn slow and overly cautious
Same guy also bought an iPod right when they first came out, was all excited to show it off, had his secretary load 2 songs on it to demonstrate how, then he shoved it in a drawer and never used it again.
Pretty much the same with me. I have a 2013 SHO that can park on its own. I used it a couple of times right after purchasing the car just to see if it actually worked. It did, sort of. One time it hopped the curb and I decided not to use it again as the rims are something like $500 each. I think Ford got rid of the feature after about 2020?
I want to judge your boss, but I need to know what those two songs were and if he had any say in the song selection.
I forget which ones specifically, but I do remember they were both by Chicago
Ahh, I wonder when he traded the Fusion for a Vette with Chrome rims? Joking aside. I think the concept of self park is neat, but its closer to being one of those solutions looking for a problem. I think it could be most helpful on rental cars. since you’re driving a vehicle most likely dissimilar to your own in an unfamiliar area. But all of these systems function differently and from a rental standpoint that would be a huge limiting factor in usage.
I haven’t worked for him in like 8 years, but saw him in December for a former coworker’s wedding, was driving one of the later MKZ hybrids. He’s always had a thing about spending money on energy, the kind of guy would would put in a $100k solar system to save $50 a month on the electric bill, exaggeration, but that’s the attitude. Had one of those Echo-style first gen Priuses when I first went to work for him almost 20 years ago and has always bought whatever he felt was the latest and greatest hybrid sedan at the moment, with a preference for domestics when available
I have no use for the self-parking feature, but I have a twelve year-old iPod Classic that I use nearly every day. That reminds me, the battery is clearly aging and I should replace it.
ifixit have a great article on the process. Removing the back panel is a bit of a pain, but the battery is cheap!