Industry News
VW self-parking car at Hanover Fair
23rd April 2008
VW’s prototype "Park Assist Vision" system independently guides Passat into any parking space. A live demo can be viewed at this year's Hanover Fair (21 to 25 April), where VW is premiering its "Park Assist Vision", a system which can guide a Passat prototype into the kind of parking space available on parking lots and in multi-storey car parks. A Passat estate stops, the driver gets out, slams the door shut and, as he walks away from the car, he aims a remote control back at it. That car proceeds to reverse park itself into the available space, then independently cuts the engine and locks its doors.
Having already launched a Valeo ‘Park4U’ Park Assist semi-automatic park-steering system in its Touran, Tiguan, Passat and Passat estate models to help drivers parallel-park, Volkswagen is now presenting a concept system at the Hanover Fair which is capable of ‘perpendicular’ parking fully automatically. The only thing the driver needs to do is select an available space on the monitor of the navigation system, set the selection lever of the automatic-drive vehicle (DSG) to "P" and alight from the car. The driver can, of course, choose to stay in the vehicle until the vehicle has been manoeuvred into its space.
Two cameras located in the left and right exterior mirrors are responsible for gauging the dimensions of the parking space. The video signals are transmitted to a 2-GHz high-performance computer which then analyses them and sends commands to the steering and drive systems. If the driver has himself initiated the parking manoeuvre, the "Park Assist Vision" will reverse the vehicle into the parking space in accordance with the previously computed course, controlling the electronic parking brake, DSG and the engine power produced by the idling mixture. Two additional cameras at the front and rear of the vehicle as well as the system's ultrasound sensors monitor the operation and will stop the vehicle if necessary. The driver may also interrupt the manoeuvre at any time using the remote control.
This new driver assistance system is still in the trial phase of development; no date has yet been set for series production.
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