VW and Skoda Innovative Park Assist

Posted by Lease Cars Direct
20th November 2009 10:50

The time has come when our cars can start to parallel park themselves automatically! VW has developed an innovative park assist that is beating off the opposition from Renault and BMW, and is beginning to win the motoring awards for innovation.

The park assist uses sensors that are strategically placed around the car and links to an electronic assisted steering system to parallel reverse the vehicle into a parking space. The sensors can judge if the parking space is large enough to be parked in.

To use the park assist, the driver switches on the park assist when approaching a line of vehicles, the system will alert the driver to a space that the vehicle can be parked into. The driver then removes his hands from the steering wheel and lets the park assist take over turning the wheel as necessary to slip into the gap. Only the speed of the reverse and any forward correction is controlled by the driver.

The system steers the car into the space, informing the driver of its progress via the display on the stereo or satellite navigation system and the rear parking sensors.

For the traditional or sceptical driver, the park assist can be turned off and parked manually. Sky Motoring’s judges praised the Superb’s Parking Assistant system for its ease of use and commented. “It sounds destined for a slot on ‘It’ll never work’, but we tested it several times and, shock horror, it actually works.”

The park assist is available as an option on all Skoda Superb models, to view current lease deals on the Skoda Superb click here