New Car Faulty Steering

[Craig]

My Kuga doesn't have reversing cameras, but it does have auto reverse parking. And that is a wonderful system. What it is capable of give rise to a problem. With autopark engaged, it went bong - and I thought there was no way the car could slot itself in the gap. But it did - four forward/reverse shuffles later it proudly announced that parking was complete.

When I got out the car, there was 20cm at the front and 20cm at the rear to the cars parked forward and aft!

It was a nightmare to get the car back out again!

However, recognizing that this was a problem, the more recent models have got a de-park feature to shuffle you back out again!

[AdrianPH]

Not considering the poor drivers of the cars either end that have been boxed in by the like of automatic parking now also have to struggle to get out!

Adrian

[Doodlebug]

Does the car select a good parking place or does the driver?
If driver selected what does the car do if a too narrow place
has been chosen? Sound an alarm?

[Radio Fixer]

I dont have Auto Reverse Parking which sounds amazing. Might feel nervous about that but the beep sensors front and back are most helpful and we wouldnt want to be without them. The reverse camera we had in the previous model was occasionally helpful but dont miss it now.

Others have mentioned having cameras, front and rear, which could be useful but I couldnt be bothered to faff around sticking them on the screens. Guess they will soon be built in/

Gary

[Craig]

Does the car select a good parking place or does the driver?
If driver selected what does the car do if a too narrow place
has been chosen?  Sound an alarm?

The car decides. When autopark is selected the car looks for a place it identifies as being a gap it can get into. It goes bong, and the display says "drive forward". Then bong "engage reverse". When the rear sensors go into continuous beep it goes bong "engage forward". Repeat as necessary until you are in.

That works if you are parking on the left. If you are trying to park on the right, you switch the right hand indicator on, when the car looks for a parking space on the right.

But you are right - if the car squeezes itself into a tiny gap, cars front and aft also might not be able to get out. So apart from the almost academic exercise of getting into a tight gap once, I always select somewhere sensible and ignore the car's insistence on offering tiny gaps.

[Doodlebug]

Interesting that if your car hit another car following your
car's instructions parking,
who would be liable? You or the car manufacturer ?
I daresay this parking system is tested out on an MOT.

[Murphyv310]

When I was training to be an ADI about 12 years ago it was mentioned that cars would park themselves and a lot of us thought no way, turns out we were wrong. In fact so many cannot reverse park and its actually a simple manoeuvre with a few straightforward actions from the driver which works 90% of the time.

[peter scott]

The VW we've hired doesn't appear to have parking assist. I really dislike the Lane Assist but I have to say that I really like the IQ Drive.

Back home when I use cruise control and I come up the back of a slower vehicle I need to just lightly touch the brake to knock it out of cruise and then hit Resume once the road is clear again. The IQ Drive is great in as much as it slows down behind vehicles traveling slower than your set cruise speed and automatically takes you back up to your speed when the road is clear. I dislike auto-boxes but I think the Cruise/IQ Drive would work even better in an auto. With the manual box you can easily be slowed by the vehicle in front to a speed inappropriate to your current gear, or even stopped, so you may need to change down but dipping the clutch knocks it out of cruise.

Peter

[ppppenguin]

I find cruise control useful even in low speed urban driving. There are quite a few 20mph speed limits around London, some of which have speed cameras. It's remarkably hard to maintain 20mph without taking your eyes off the road to look at the speedometer so cruise control works well for this.

My Skoda Yeti has basic cruise control and reversing sensors. Both very useful. My little electric Citigo has neither and I miss them. I must look at a front/rear set of dash cameras which might be able to double up as a reversing aid.

I've driven automatic cars since the mid 1990s and would never willingly go back. A decent auto box has rarely left me in the wrong gear and I can always override it. Who wants to be using a clutch in heavy traffic. It's irrelevant when cruising at speed. I've very occasionally chosen gears manually on winding country roads but the auto box is so good that I very rarely bother. The only times I feel I want a clutch is to get me out of trouble under slippery conditions. From stationary, engage 2nd, dump the clutch and off you go. No real equivalent in an automatic unless they've provided a special mode for slippy conditions.

[Mike Watterson]

You can also buy reversing sensor kits.