How Do Self Parking Cars Work?
Do you break out in a cold sweat when you need to parallel park your car? Or, have you intentionally driven a good distance past your destination to avoid having to parallel park on a street? Well, if you are parallel parking challenged (and who isn’t?) you may want to consider a car with a self-parking system. As your auto repair experts, we have learned a thing or two about these systems. So we thought we would give you a little self-parking 101 on how they work.
We have all seen the commercials, especially the one with Jim Gaffigan, that demonstrate using a self-parking car.
You get the gist; some vehicles today actually do a very good job of parking themselves. However, what some people may not know is that the driver is still in control of the vehicle’s speed. While most people need about six feet of additional room beyond the size of their vehicle, some self-parking system advertise that they can pilot your car into narrower spaces than us humans are able to do so.
How Self-Parking Systems Work
To park, you simply engage the self-parking system and drive your car up to and parallel to the car behind which you would like to park. But, the car will tell you how far to pull forward and will give you a signal as to when to stop.
You then shift the car into reverse and let go of the steering wheel so the onboard computer can take over. All you do now is let up on the brake and control the speed with the brake. The computer will control the power steering and take your vehicle into the parking space.
Then, when the car is backed far enough into the parking space, another signal tells you to shift into drive. Again you release the brakes and the car will adjust perfectly to the space.
All this is controlled by a system of sensors tied to an onboard computer. The sensors are typically on the front and back of the car so they can detect objects. Then the signal from the sensor bounce off objects and the system calculates distance as it is maneuvering.
How to Use This Information
We anticipate that more and more people will buy cars equipped with such systems, especially as we do live in an urban area where parallel parking is normal. In the meantime, we all know that parallel parking is tricky and can lead to bent bumpers, dents, paint scrapes, and frayed nerves. If you have need of repair from parking gone bad, we can help! Call us at 303-344-2212 or schedule an estimate appointment online.
