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Self-Parking Car Available In Japan
Posted by
simoniker
on Mon Sep 01, 2003 04:29 PM
from the or-try-the-monster-truck-parking-method dept.
from the or-try-the-monster-truck-parking-method dept.
sinjayde writes "Yahoo!/Reuters is reporting that Toyota has released a car for sale in Japan that is able to park itself: 'Toyota's new hybrid gasoline-electric Prius sedan uses electrically operated power steering and sensors that help guide the car when reversing into parking spaces.'" No need to rely on the reverse parking formula anymore?
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Technology: Self-Parking Cars Coming To U.S. 610 comments
Rio writes "Vehicles that are able to parallel park themselves while drivers sit and relax behind the wheel are coming to the United States, according to a Local 6 News report. New Toyota hybrid cars are now available in Britain with a $700 "parking assist" option. Local 6 news showed video of a driver sitting and allowing the car's steering wheel to turn on its own as it pulled into a tight parking spot on a London street. The reporter never touched the wheel as the car parked itself.Toyota says expect to see the technology pop up in the U.S. soon." Here is our previous coverage of their release in Japan.
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It had to be done... (Score:4, Funny)
Glad to see they put this in a hybird car. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Glad to see they put this in a hybird car. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It had to be done... (Score:3, Interesting)
hmm, not so sure.... (Score:4, Funny)
I saw this today (Score:4, Interesting)
In the demonstration the man driving the Prius stopped the car a little ahead of a parking spot, then on the LCD screen, pressed the left & right buttons(Im guessing, cuz it was in japanese and too small to read) and then the car parked itself right on the spot intended. The driver at that time was "look ma, no hands". There were front and rear cameras and while parking the car was emitting a sound similar to the "put seatbelt on" one.
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dependency (Score:4, Funny)
Re:dependency (Score:4, Interesting)
I bet it was the same thing with automatic transmission at first. A car changing gears on it's own, many of the people who were only used to manual probably didn't particularly want to make the switch. Some will switch, but the vast majority of the transition depends on time.
Or to make a long story short, new technology can take upwards of a generation to really assimilate into society. But you probably knew that anyway, I just felt like pointing that out as it seemed pertinent or something.
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Re:dependency (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it really all that likely? It's simply a navigation task, not some particular combination of voodoo prayer and the position of the moon. Calculators didn't kill the study of math, elevators didn't kill the climbing of stairs, and even if you made those arguments it's arguable that society has grown to a higher level since both these devices came along. So tell me, why would a self parking car make people forget how to park cars? That's a ridiculous, cliche filled, statement.
"but people are getting too darn lazy these days."
People are smarter than they ever were. They do a lot more these days than they did in the olden days. Lazy?
"is parking really that hard?"
If it were, dontcha think that these things would have been around ages ago? Back in the 50's they had a car with a fifth wheel so you could pivot your car into a paralell spot. Didn't exactly take off. However, technology has gotten a lot better these days, it's gotten cheaper, and car companies are in a competition to get more marketshare. What you're seeing here is a result of competition, not some need to park cars. Besides, have you ever had a valet driver bump your bumper? Happens to my car daily.
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Re:I won't give up Stick! (Score:3, Informative)
I know. I own a 2002 Prius, and have ordered the 2004 (too bad they don't have self pa
driving test. (Score:5, Funny)
2. sell driving lesson school for people who are afraid to parallel park on driving test. with the promise they can use car on the test.
3. ????
4. profit.
Re:driving test. (Score:5, Informative)
In some states, it is no longer a requirement to know how to parallel park in order to get a license. Therefore, even though I've been driving for two years, I still can't parallel park.
Sad but true.
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Who pays? (Score:5, Interesting)
In the US, these have to pass some rigorous gov't inspection and testing before they are allowed on the road. I don't think I want the liability.
Is parking really that hard? Are people really that stupid and lazy? Don't answer that. Can I get a robot to feed me my cereal in the morning?
Re:Who pays? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think you will have the option of recovering damages from the manufacturer. You ultimately pulled the switch that told the car to auto-park.
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Re:Who pays? (Score:5, Insightful)
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highways and magnets (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:highways and magnets (Score:3, Interesting)
The only problem then becomes crap-in-the-road (or lack of a road) avoidance. However if you had traffic monitori
Re:Who pays? (Score:4, Insightful)
Speaking from complete ignorance, just trying to think through the economics of this--if the self-driving system actually lead to less accidents, then in general you'd expect there to be less money overall awarded in liability lawsuits. The difference would just be who would be responsible--some liability that was previously the driver's would become the car manufacturer's. So you'd expect the automaker to end up spending more on liability insurance (raising the cost of the car), but you'd expect the car driver's liability insurance to decrease correspondingly.
The driver's insurer could say "buy this (more expensive, because of the technology and the costs of the maker's insurance) self-driving car and we'll give you a discount."
So naively it's not obvious that the increased liability on the automakers' part would make the whole project impossible.
Maybe an automated highway is more complicated than something like a self-parking mechanism, because many more parties are involved (e.g., the people who built and designed the highway), but still, if they could prove that there would be a decrease in accidents, then it might be possible to distribute the costs of risks in a reasonable way.
I sincerely doubt, however, that it is possible for anyone at this point to *know* that the accident rates will be lower. Without more experience, an automated highway sounds like a risky venture--it might initially seem to be safer, but then a subtle bug might cause something catastrophic to happen after it's been in use for a while. Perhaps it was the difficult-to-forsee problems that they were worried about in the situation you describe. But if the threat of suits here is encouraging caution, that strikes me as a good thing--surely radical changes affecting something as critical as highway safety *should* be undertaken very cautiously.
--Bruce Fields
Parent
Re:Who pays? (Score:2, Insightful)
In that case, the state can adopt a no-fault policy, thus eliminating frivolous lawsuits and those "middlemen".
Parking is easy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Parking is easy (Score:5, Funny)
Thats an easy enough solution...just get yourself a tank and parking problems will be a thing of the past
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Re:Parking is easy (Score:5, Funny)
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how great an idea that would be. (Score:3, Interesting)
Good for Toyota (Score:2, Interesting)
self merging cars,... (Score:4, Insightful)
later,
epic
Re:self merging cars,... (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately merging is one of the maneuvers that requires the most communication; in busy traffic you really have to negotiate with the other people on the road--signal and move over a little, watch to see if the approaching driver acknowledges you, and then, depending on the reaction, either move over a little more or retreat and wait for the next gap.
Exactly the sort of procedure I'd imagine to be most difficult to automate....
--Bruce Fields
Parent
Re:self merging cars,... (Score:2)
Unfortunately merging is one of the maneuvers that requires the most communication; in busy traffic you really have to negotiate with the other people on the road--signal and move over a little, watch to see if the approaching driver acknowledges you, and then, depending on the reaction, either move over a little more or retreat and wait for the next gap.
How about a radar? I'd like a radar, personally. It'd be a heck of a lot more useful than mirrors, and could be really helpful when vision is impaired
Re:self merging cars,... (Score:2)
Merging into traffic is one of the exciting parts of my morning commute -- sort of a game to see how far forward I can get ahead of the traffic, and still weasel cleanly in. Same thing with changing lanes at just the right time. Even if a machine could do a better job than me, I would still rather do it myself.
What I want is a car that will automatically stay a couple of car lengths behind the guy in front, and just sit there and stay in the lane so I can read a book o
Obvious joke (Score:5, Funny)
obvious answer (Score:2, Funny)
BBC Story (Score:5, Informative)
The technology for this was shown off months ago - I saw the story. I am glad it is finally being released to the public.
Not new (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't say I... (Score:5, Interesting)
The forgotten danger (Score:4, Interesting)
bigger engine and motor (Score:5, Informative)
Toyota did the right thing. The new prius is bigger than the old one (now a midsize, not a compact), has fewer emissions, more horsepower, and accelerates faster. Now, if they could only make it cheaper, too....
cluster (Score:4, Funny)
importing one (Score:5, Funny)
I imagine when you try to autopark in a right hand side country it will park in the middle of the road instead of the sidewalk.
Better yet (Score:5, Funny)
Interesting Idea (Score:4, Funny)
yes... (Score:2, Funny)
Wrong place for intelligence (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wrong place for intelligence (Score:4, Informative)
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Reminds me of a bad card I read (Score:5, Funny)
on the inside..
Because men will tell them this is 6 inches:
--> ==== <--
Needless to say it wasn't quite the punchline I was expecting
How stunt drivers do it (Score:5, Funny)
Head towards the parking spot at a fair speed, as perpendicular to the spot as you can. Swerve car and pull handbrake and then brake and counter steer so that you neatly skid and slide in sideways.
With this method you can park in a spot that's practically the same length as your car - just depends on how accurate you are.
Getting out requires a bit more space - the length of the space must be slightly more than the diagonal length of your car. Pull handbrake to max, turn steering wheel max (to lock) towards side you want to exit from. Stomp on clutch, red line engine, release clutch, burn rubber and gradually spin car out of space.
Not recommended in uncontrolled environments.
Re:The article text to avoid /. effect: (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks for that. 'Cause you know Yahoo gets /.ed every time.
- ebh
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Re:The article text to avoid /. effect: (Score:2)
Re:The real question (Score:5, Funny)
Robots to auto-post to Slashdot?
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Re:Yuck (Score:4, Insightful)
Traction control and anti-lock brakes both can accomplish feats that the best driver on the planet Earth couldn't accomplish, given that they are modulating their input thousands of times per second, absolutely optimizing power/braking and acceleration. They aren't necessities, and you could approximate them, but don't fool yourself into thinking that you could do a better job. If you claim otherwise, then I'd suggest that you should have relay wires installed in your dash to let you handle the spark timing yourself as well.
Where technology has just finally offered a better choice is in transmissions: Until recently the "standard" was always the superior driving choice, as the automatic options were hydraulic circuitry turds often with 3 gears. Now there are continuously variable automatic transmissions that achieve the absolute perfect coupling between power plant and road surface all of the time. Alternately the computer controlled 5 or 6 speed automatics are quite extraordinary now as well.
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Re:Yuck (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, though, I think the driving tests need to be 10x harder. If half the people failed them, the roads would be a whole lot safer and more pleasent.
Re:Sounds good (Score:3, Funny)
It can, but nobody wants to type man headlts.