Volkswagen Introduces Park Assist Vision

When Lexus introduced the LS 460 it made a giant deal about it being able

Park Assist Vision will allow owners to park their cars without even being inside them. (Photo: Volkswagen)

to park itself. And while it wasn't the first car to feature this technology (that honor goes to a regular Toyota), it was the first of its type to be marketed in North America. Since that time Volkswagen has begun to offer self-parking systems on some of its vehicles. But now, the German giant is working on a parking system that will allow the car to be parked by itself without the driver being in the car at all!

The system builds off the standard, radar-based Park Assist, but adds in the dimension of vision. PAV, as it's called, features several cameras and, when combined with regular parking sensors and a powerful 2 GHz computer processor, is able to slot the vehicle into a regular parking stall, or into a parallel field. All the driver must do is pull up alongside a parking spot. The computer determines whether or not parking the vehicle within the space is

System uses cameras, sensors and a very powerful computer to park the vehicle. (Photo: Volkswagen)

possible. If all is good, the driver simply selects the spot on the navigation screen and puts the vehicle in “Park”.

What is particularly amazing is that the driver can get out of the car and walk away. The whole process can be controlled via the key fob, and features an emergency stop should things go awry. Once the vehicle is stopped, the car locks itself.

While there are certainly some limitations, and definitely some liability issues that would need to be addressed, the idea of a true, self-parking car is certainly curious. Volkswagen believes that one day, after the system has been perfected, it will offer it on production vehicles.

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