Gizmodo
But even the Tesla car can't park itself. Explanation of how the Advanced Parking Guidance System works, information on how this thing rips CDs, and other e-goodies, after the jump.
UPDATE: The video had some hiccups. Fixed.
Here's how it works.
1. You drive past a parking spot at 12mph or less. The four rear and six front sonar sensors detect the cars, and the gap between them.
2. Putting the car into reverse activates the wide-angle backup camera. There's a little button on the bottom of the screen that looks like a car parking. Hit it. If the spot is more than 6.5 feet longer than the car itself, the car enters Advanced Parking Guidance System mode. This is where the magic happens.
3. Crawl backwards, keeping your foot on the brake. If you touch the gas, or the wheel, the mode shuts itself off. Make sure to stay under 2.5mph, or it'll shut off, too. The wheel, as you can see from the video above, spins itself like its being ghost-driven. The sonar system is constantly measuring distance, beeping with more urgency as you get closer to obstacles.
4. When you're in the spot, the computer will announce that parking is complete.
Sonar Panels
Parking Mode buttons
Pretty sweet. Dan Neil, automotive journalist for the LA Times, and one of my favorite writers evar, sat next to me when I got the demo. He said he thought it was a pretty neat system. And that he could use it, since his better half was also the better parallel parker.
That's the best part of this car, but it's not the only awesome thing about it.
The car has adaptive cruise control, which uses millimeter-wave radar to slow you if a car in front of you hits the brakes. If the system detects a collision, it'll add pressure to the brakes to help stop time, and electronically tighten seatbelts.
It has the world's first 8-speed transmission, which uses fewer moving parts than the old 6-speed, in about the same space. I thought a car with 8 gears would flip through them like playing cards, but they were geared fairly tall to take advantage of the grunty 4.6-liter, 380-horsepower V8 engine. By the way, the pair gets the car up to 60mph in 5.4 seconds.
Like the Prius and other late-model Lexus cars, its key uses radio frequency to enable the door lock and starter buttons from a few feet away. Seems like a hack waiting to happen. But there's another drawback: One journalist took the car back to SF from Marin county, and left the key at the restaurant. The car keeps going, until you shut it off. Then, get ready to call AAA for a tow.
The headlights were inspired by crystal wine glasses. When they modeled a plastic assembly after the glasses, it didn't shine the way they wanted it to. So they took the headlamp, made it out of crystal, and studied the way it refracted light to get a similar look. The taillights are made from LEDs.
The car is so quiet, they had to redesign motors in the windows and locks because they were intrusive at first.
The backseat is not a bad place to be. The seats are adjustable in position, and feature heating, as well individual climate controls. There's a refrigerator big enough to hold a four cans of...soda. There are individual vanity mirrors, and a 9-inch motorized fold-down screen for the DVD player. The screen also can view and control (not sure if that's by remote or touch) the navigation, in case the driver is too busy speeding. There are rear sun shades that go down when the car is in reverse, and back up automatically when the car goes over 9mph.
The controls...for the back seat.
The tire pressure monitoring receiver sits on the roof, checking all 5 tires, yes, even the full-sized spare.
Finally, we reach the center console.
The nav system is the fifth generation of Toyota's system, centered around a 9-inch, 800x600 screen. The system uses XM to receive live traffic data, with icons for traffic jams, accidents, closed roads, construction, bad weather conditions, etc. But that data is only available in some areas. The system also has integrated Bluetooth for pairing with a cellphone, for speakerphone and addressbook access. The entire system can be controlled by voice commands.
The stereo's 7.1-channel surround, with some 19 speakers pushes 15 discreet channels. The total power? 450 watts. It sounded...okay. The optical drive in the dash plays back CDs, DVDs, and CDs burned with WMA and MP3s. What's cool is that the same HDD that the satellite nav system uses to store maps can also hold MP3s that the car rips from CDs. First car, to my knowledge, that can do this.
The Intuitive parking system is the more simple of the two parking aids. It uses the car's sonar to increase the tempo of beeps as you get closer to cars you're parking near.
How does it drive? It moves a bit like a hurricane-driven cloud, quickly running through its 8 gears to its electronically regulated 135MPH, or something close to that. The car moves, but without much confidence that the road won't fly out from under you in corners.
Lexus LS 460L [Jalopnik]
Comments
The video doesn't work for me ATM, but this parking system sounds just like the one which has been part of Japanese version Prius for several years now ...
Lexus, making bad drivers worse
First Americans stop changing gears themselves, and now breaking, parking... what next? If you take out the fun of all the driving, why are you so reluctant to advancing public transport, trains etc...?
Where is my car that will turn the wheels sideways and allow me to slide into very tight spots?
"The car is so quiet, they had to redesign motors in the windows and locks because they were intrusive for the first."
Yeah dont really get what your saying "for the first"....
If someone is having problems parking their midsized sedan, then I really don't think they should be driving to begin with.
Also, why is it so hard for some people to parallel park? I watched some lady the other day make 3 attempts at trying to parallel park her Ford Focus into a spot 1.5 times longer then her car before becoming frustrated and leaving to find another spot... but I'm sure people like her can navigate the hell through their cell phone/ipod while speeding through school zones with no problem!
We shouldn't have to rely on machines to compensate for our incompetence pertaining to simple tasks... like parking.
Great, something else to break that you will need a specialist to fix.
You have to be one really stupid motherfucker to need a parking assistant.
Have your wife stand out there and let you know how much room you have left before you slap your bumper into the car behind you.
Works for me.
To BillyC_808
like grammar?
Yikes, I don't want people who can't drive and park driving and parking around me.
To mtopper:
What I posted is grammatically correct. Perhaps you should reread it slowly, sucka!
Perfect! Now all I need is $80k to buy this car. How do I tell my wife it has nothing to do with her bad parking and just that it's a cool car?
To mtopper:
then=than, but looking at your previous posts I can safely claim that you're not an expert on the subject of grammar either.
Geraldaut says:
First Americans stop changing gears themselves, and now braking, parking... what next? If you take out the fun of all the driving, why are you so reluctant to advancing public transport, trains etc...?
You're kidding, right? I mean, duh!
You can't flaunt a train ticket or bus token. If everyone uses the same form of transportation, how ever will we be able to tell who is better than everyone else?
Clearly, you do not understand our culture.
/posting from a 7.3 jigga-hertz computer. Boo-ya.
"The tire pressure monitoring receiver sits on the roof, checking all 5 tires, yes, even the full-sized spare."
Isn't that the GPS antenna?
I just use my bumpers for parking assist. That is why they call them "bumpers", isn't it?
I haven't heard of another factory stereo that can rip mp3s to a hard drive, but I know there was another aftermarket unit that would actually take care of the ripping for you.
Either way, that's a cool feature... as long as it looks up artist/album/track information and you have the ability to upgrade the hard drive for you massive mp3 collection.
no matter which way you look at it, its effing cool.
The GPS antenna is probably in the dashboard facing through the front window. That's where it is in the Prius.
I'd rather see all of this done with a 1969 Chevelle, too much plastic in a Lexus...
...too much plastic in a Lexus? Um, too much plastic in EVERY modern car? Yea.
Well, if you're never driven a Lexus I can understand why you'd make a generic comment...man, after having all kinds of makes, my toyota is the best car I've ever owned. It's a 2001 solara, with 125,000 miles on it..and I can never tell if I started it up after I pump gas...it runs sooo freakin smooth, it's unbelievable. I've driven the hell out of this thing, and as far as "plastic," I can promise you one thing..there isn't a creak, a rattle, or a pop in the entire vehicle. It takes bumps like a Cadillac, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I appreciate/respect American brands, but, nuh-uh..no other car, even a honda, has held up like this toyota.
perfect.........
After owning a lexus rx300 i understand that there is no way possible that this system would fail. its japanese not american, in other words its quality not crap. and last time i checked when i was in england or chicago i found it somewhat hard to park in a parking spot which is about the same size as my car, i figgure that this will allow me to do this, o yea reversing into a regular parking spot where it is perfectly matched on either side of the car, probably wil save a few dings in the doors which i'm almost cirtain people one here wouldnt like to have on their 80 grand car. and last but not least on the highway where most americans unfortunently for some reason or another seem to turn off and drive like crap, so for ur car not to get crashed or this 80 grand car not to then i think this is a good system.
Need more of these in Houston Tx
Thank you Destardi. People speak nowadays with a lot of ignorance. I live in New York and parallel parking is one the parking methods that most new yorkers have to do. This is an awesome feature because still a lot of people can't do it. I'm sure if this feature was in a benz or bimma they won't say anything, and they will go tell their friends that "the new benz has a great feature no other car has" and they dream of having this car. I own a lexus, and I'm not speaking because of that but the negativity you get from people about Lexus is just sad. I say to them all go rent one and drive then talk your nonscence.
People are just scared that Lexus is a better, more reliable, and way more affordable car than a benz or bimma. Lexus is heading to the top, believe that.
Can anyone out there help me? I'm using the Sat Nav on my new lexus for the first time and cannot understand the icons at all! I've just about worked out the "traffic jam ahead" icon - but the rest are a mystery!!
yeah! it's cool tech though, but it will make lazy peoples even lazier.
And what's "next drive your car without even touching anything".
"If the spot is more than 6.5 feet longer than the car itself, the car enters Advanced Parking Guidance System mode. This is where the magic happens."
Umm. okay. That's not very useful. I expect that myself and most other city drivers can park with that much spare room in their sleep. If the system could fit the car into a truly challenging spot with ease, that would be useful.
Pssst...hey you...yeah, you.
(opens trenchcoat)
You wanna buy a watch signore?
The parking spot must be 6.5 feet longer than the car. I think there was once a spot that big reported in New York sometime in the mid seventies.
This is a system for parallel parking on the back streets of rural suburbs.
its easy just live in the country i never have to worry parking my 4x4.if your in my spot i push your prius out of the way.
This parking assist is just another thing that poor drivers need.The same one's that don't use signals when they cut people off while slicing thru 3 lanes of traffic! Fix the driving tests not the car. This is one more thing that will cost a mint to fix if there ever became a problem with it. Lexus is "near" perfect not totally perfect, after all these cars do not have "life-time" warrenties (misspelled i know grammer man).
If I'm not misstaken that is more likely the antenna for the cell phone and/or GPS on top of the car.
As for the grammer bashing, this is the internet not english class..I bet you don't text every word and sentence perfect.. nd if u do ur butthole is toooo tight..give it a break.
And for my contridictory comment.... living in places like Germany (which i did for 3 yrs) would make you wish for this because of the horrible parking situations on the tight, narrow streets in allot of places. So I'm sure it could be useful in some cases. And like someone pointed out.. its the nah nah boo boo see what my car can do and yours can't!
Just an enlightment,in the early 1900's another car manufacture had the same "idea". Only instead of self parking it had four(4) independent smaller wheels that were lowered at (90degrees) of the area.
for the guy who is saying Americans are too lazy to shift gears and what not, and now to parallel park, lets not forget who makes this car, the JAPANESE. Blaming the Japanese' advacing technology on the laziness of Americans not only doesnt make much sense, it just shows your personal laziness in not researching the simple facts that this is not an American invention or an American product. So dont shut off your mind and jump on the "I Know Everything Thats Wrong With America Today" bandwagon...they are the most powerful country in the world and most envy their influence, power and wealth, so u can down talk as much as you want but realize that just because a car is Asian dosent make it "quality" and just becuase a car is european dosent make it "high performance" and just because a car is American, it doesnt make it crap. Its kind of funny, i wonder how the biggest car companies in the world got to be the biggest...Dont forget, finacially hurting or not, they are all American, so the Americans must be doing something right. The same goes for their country too.
JiltedCitizen says:
Where is my car that will turn the wheels sideways and allow me to slide into very tight spots?
Please tell me when that one comes out?
The Ls 460 is an incredible car. I have had BMWs and Mercedes and found that the Lexus was
smoother and more dependable. The parking feature is not something I would consider. I have been most impressed with the service at the dealership.
Lexus LS460 design is nearly same as The New Camry (Asian Version).
ParkingPop
This parking system was designed for old lady (a type not a gender) drivers who have the cash to pay for something they shouldn't need. Hey, it would be cheaper to buy a Ford and hire a chauffeur.
Don't generalize American's like that.
We're in the 21st century now and it's very, very cool to have neat stuff like this.
I am a very good parallel parker, but would like have that feature.
FYI: What is an American?
An American is anybody who has a dream.
Funny, walking down the street, you'll see a person from every Race & country in the world.
America...is not a country, it's a dream come true.
My wife and I just got back from 3 weeks of vacation in Paris France, Venice, Florence, Sienna, Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano, and Ravello Italy and you know what? The best and most frequented automobile there was the SMART car....check google for it. It's the latest European/Canadian import due in the US of A in 2009. Small well-developed and super-safe cockpit/passenger front AND side airbags are the key to safer driving....compact or no!
Still. I think our wonderful USA could benefit from the European technology of smaller, safer....yes...SMART cars...the wave of the future.. the Japanees carmakers had the right idea in the 70's but sluffed off onto making HUGE luxury sedans.
With the Euro at 1.30 per every US 1 buck....it would behoove us to pay attention to our ancestral Europe.....
I know how to implement the parallel parking technology in a car w/o making the cost of the product like 80 grands.
Once you put parallel parking gear ON(A new one to be introduced in the system) another set of wheel will down which will rotate in 90 degree angle and it will release your original four wheels above ground...you can steer it go left or right...once done put the parking gear oN.
What I'd like to know is, why would someone trust an electronic system to park their car? Yeah, so it's "perfect" Japanese technology. Have you ever had a VCR or DVD player or video game that decided to do whatever it wanted? Ever had one not play a movie and not eject it because it just didn't feel like it? What happens when this effing POS decides it wants to mow down that Girl Scout troop on the sidewalk? The Japanese don't know the meaning of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Anyone that buys a car like this is a lazy, stupid airhead who shouldn't be driving at all. By the way, try pulling the left front axle out of an '85 Corolla. There are not enough swear words in the English language for a job like that. How's that for Toyota's "perfect" technology. Be a guy. Buy a Chevy.
What the hell is the point of spending $80,000 to get a car that does this. Probably doesn't even work. I've heard it's hard to parallel park, but is it that bad? And if the parking space has to be about 6 feet longer than the car, what's the point? You could easily do this yourself. MAYBE you should just buy a really short car. Wouldn't that work better? I don't really know much about cars, but even a retarded sea monkey could tell that the Lexus is crap. Buy a Chevy!
But Lexus LS is nearly to its German rival....really near actually...
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