Video has NSFW language...you have been warned Might as well perpendicular park it. No real details except it was shot at happy hour with about 15 people watching. Wonder how long it took before someone decided to whip out the phone and record it. [ame=http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=097_1326492478]LiveLeak.com - Parallel parking a smart car should be easy[/ame]
Dude, with the lack of driver training in this country, there are plenty of idiots that couldn't do that stone cold sober.
I didn't see any problem at all. After all she did park the car properly. I'm sure she had a driver's license. It was a very small parking space to try to squeeze in that smart for two car. Yep, no problem's at all.
Do cars that self-park get sold in the US? My impression has always been that there is so little parallel parking that it wouldn't be a big sales feature. My convertible lives on a congested street and is such a pain to manoeuvre in reverse that I would pay quite a bit of money for an option like this on the Mini: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPvRj6aOFAQ]VW Tiguan Self Parking , VW Tiguan estacioando sozinha - YouTube[/ame]
There are models with the parking feature available here. The real problem is people are not really trained properly on how to park. Along with the lack of training is the lack of need. For the most part outside of a city center there are massive parking lots where one does not need to parallel park at all. Even in the cities there are massive parking structures negating the need for on street parking.
I was taught to pull up beside the first car, cut the wheel, then back until its rear bumper came in line with the side vent window and then cut the the other way. Worked great, until they stopped making cars with vent windows. Jim
That's the truth! My City, in the last few years, has gone back to re-striping streets and reinstalling diagonal parking. We had meters in downtown for parallel parking that were never used. Now with diagonal parking they are filled constantly adding to the much needed City revenue! It also has the added benefit of slowing traffic down on the older more narrow streets as drivers realize that those backing out may not always see oncoming traffic. Last but not least, we have gone back to one way streets with diagonal parking and bike lanes which has substantially reduced pedestrian accidents as well and made downtown streets more walking and bicycling friendly. In a few years drivers will be describing to the younger crowd just what parallel parking was and those of use that can do it will be giving demos at car shows! :wink: As for the video, why did they not just pull in nose first? Amazing.