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Ford Active Park Assist: Believe the hype
I have seen the future, and it's terrifyingly convenient. Sitting behind the wheel of a Ford Taurus Lincoln MKS, I watched as its Active Park Assist system took over the steering, parallel-parking the car in a tight spot on a New York street as I worked the pedals. Ford was demo'ing the tech — which has just begun to hit the streets — in the company's promotional campaign for the 2010 Taurus. Of all the new technologies shown off, including an upgraded SYNC system, the Active Park Assist impressed me the most.
When I say it's terrifying, I mean it, but kind of in a good way. The first time you let go of the steering wheel while performing parallel parking, it's very disconcerting. But grabbing hold of it will instantly cause the system to abort, so I kept my hands clear. As the instructions appeared on the dash, telling me to back up slowly, I watched as the wheel turned itself over and over, then expertly turn the other way when it was time to straighten out. As the MKS backed toward the parked car behind us, the collision warning system — which visually and audibly lets you know how close you're getting — kept track of the whole maneuver with far more precision than I could.
More on the tech behind the system, and the key question about it, after the jump.
The first question that pops to mind is, "Is this system better than the one in the Lexus?" I can't really say since I've never used the Lexus system, and after watching this YouTube video (and others like it), I don't really want to. What I can say is that Ford's Park Assist is about as simple to use as a system like this could be: press button, turn on blinker, drive past parking space, and then the system takes over. The ease of use might be because Ford's system uses ultrasound sensors as opposed to being camera-based like the Lexus's.
Could this be the first step toward robot vehicles, not unlike the ones seen on the highways in Minority Report (ironically based on a Lexus)? Doubtful — the system will only work properly at very low speeds, and any general-driving system would need several different techs working in concert (i.e. not just ultrasound). But as a current fender-bender preventer, Active Park Assist is no maybe-someday tech. It's here and now.
Via Ford
By stargate525 at 5:11 PM ON 08/07/09
Speaking of robot vehicles, there are now cars that will tell you when you are straying out of a lane in either direction, as well as adaptive cruise control. Combine those two technologies with this one, and you've got a car that won't rear-end anyone in front of you (even if they come to a complete stop), and will stay in its lane and park.
All that's left for us to do is wire in a reliable GPS, and we're there.
By Cervantes at 7:28 PM ON 08/07/09
In New America, car drives you!
By Kleptomaniac at 10:59 PM ON 08/07/09
Lol, i'd buy it simple to be able to say "Hmmm..better check the long range sensors"
By Tuca at 2:09 AM ON 08/08/09
Where's the beef? Ultrasound sensor based parking assist systems from VW, Skoda and Audi are available here in germany since mid 2008.
By Ziggytek at 9:54 AM ON 08/08/09
You said you never used the one in the Lexus, I have and it's pretty good. My friend recently bought a lexus and I was the designated driver one night and when parking near his house, which has crazy bumper to bumper parking, I found it extremely easy to use and navigate. I don't know how well this Ford one works (tough to tell on a video) but the Lexus Park assist was pretty smooth. http://ziggytek.com/
By Lex Luth at 10:39 AM ON 08/10/09
I tried the Lexus one and it was horrid. I look forward to trying this in an American car. It is good to see an American car company #1 in the quality rankings now too!
By Yznel at 5:21 PM ON 08/10/09
Huh? You've written about this revolutionary parking tech but can't speak (or even want to try) the Lexus version released nearly 3 years before? I've had an LS460 since it was introduced and have parallel parked about 50 times with little issue - the youtube demo was purposely trying to cause an error and using the manual adjustment option (most of my parking experiences required no adjustment, just put in reverse and push one button). The Ford version appears no different if you've pulled up too far or too close to the car next to you. You also control the brakes and throttle and any intervention by you aborts the process. I encourage you to take a trip to a Lexus dealer and give it a try...
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Yznel:
Huh? You've written about this revolutionary parking tech but can't speak (or even want to try) the Lexus version ...More »