im all for this idea. i have very little trust in my fellow drivers and would not want my car damaged

 

Although Toyota seems to have been the first to introduce a self parking system on a high volume production car, they did not invent it.

 

indeed... Prius had it in 2004!!!

And in 2011, it trickles down to Ford... yay!

Next up, Fusion Hybrid will get power button for starting the car

 

and post Facebook statuses while you drive

 

oh I mean "WHY would lexus..."

anyways, what was the first car with a self parking system if it wasnt the LS?

 

i think lexus shuld have this on all new cars as a option. it should be univeral with tweaks of diff car sizes. i wish my car would park itself lol

 

2004 Prius... mass production vehicle... if someone tested or announced system before, who cares.

 

Was this in the US? wow! Never heard of that in 04 on the Prius.

 

I dunno about you guys, but I find that I definitely have a harder time sensing where the entire car is all the time with a larger car, versus a smaller car. I drove a Chevy Suburban (rental) once, that thing was pretty tough to navigate in tight spaces.

Witness before and after pictures:



Yes... tight quarters and a yellow colored post didn't go well together. Blame it on my own lack of skill, but for me, driving a bigger car definitely didn't go well for me.

On the left - yellow paint transfer. On the right - Turtle Wax polishing compound does wonders

Turby

 

As always, Japan gets the latest technology long before us. The JDM Prius did have it in 2003 on the '04 model. Yet when the '06 LS came out, we all thought it was a revolutionary feature unique to the LS.

BTW, The Ford Escape has already had it since last year.

Here's the Wikipedia page on self parking systems ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelli..._Assist_System

 

All this shows is how weak and transitory a thing new technology in high end luxury cars is because eventually that same tech makes its way into the mainstream and becomes commonplace. There was a time that something called GPS was an exclusive luxury feature in high-end cars. Well, guess what?

Same thing with HIDs, satellite radio, heated and cooled seats, etc. A luxury maker can only rest so far on tech features.

 

I say good for them. At some point most mainstream cars may have self parking or at least an option. Just like anything else. Eventually it all becomes normal standard stuff. I mean, if our public transportation city buses can have HID headlights you know that tech has trickled down already. Same with Self Parking cars I guess. I think Air Conditioning was also considered luxury at one point in automotive history.