I am all for easy parallel parking and tight turn-around!
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Good for the car that’s going to park, terrible for the parked cars who will then barely get out.
I’ve actually seen someone do the thing many of us wish we could do, and start ramming the cars ahead and behind because he got boxed in like this. His bumpers were fucked all to hell but he got out, put the big pieces in his trunk, and drove off.
No idea what was going on but he was clearly having a bad day.
Personally if I WERE to do this, which of course I NEVER would, I prefer to use a bottle jack to lift the curbside corner up, then push from street side, making the car fall and skew to one side, giving me more room to exit. Note: also works on assholes parking across multiple spaces.
If you’re ever in a parking garage, or somewhere with flat level surfaces, a bottle jack and wheel dollies could let you roll the entire car around.
install some derby-style bumpers and they’ll know their fancy SUV’s gonna get fucked up if they park you in.
People in Boston sometimes have large rubber bumper covers, because according to my uncle “it’s apparently just a cultural norm to ram the other people’s bumpers to figure out how large the parking spot is”
I’m sure they will put it behind a $79.99 month paywall
I feel like “Z-Corner” (zero-corner) would have been a better name for this system.
I think related technologies have been introduced a few times over the years. I remember seeing a similar system on an American pickup truck at least a decade ago, and I think Cadillac or someone tried it as well.
As I recall, they’ve always tended to fail because drivers don’t know how to use them. They require learning a new skill and a new way of thinking. An actual self driving vehicle might be able to make more use of the added maneuverability, but people who have been driving for decades (who are the primary market for cars in the price range these run in) have developed a muscle memory such that driving is automatic. Learning to use four wheel steering isn’t just picking up a new skill - it’s actively having to unlearn a fairly complex process that is literally hardwired into your brain at that point.
People who parallel park already know how to do so, and higher end cars can park themselves. Roads are designed for traditionally steered cars (eg for things like the turning radius) so I’m not seeing a benefit there either.
I could see this being useful in something like a forklift, where you do have to be concerned about limited spaces, but there it would be explicitly taught as a new skill which your brain could separate from car driving because it’s a different vehicle with a different application and environment. You wouldn’t have to unlearn anything.
this is gonna get used as an excuse to use steer by wire, isn’t it?
for the love of god, no one wants input lag in their cars!
Steer by wire has been around for about 10 years now, mainly in Nissans.
Q50 was first. But it had a tiny mechanical backup. Toyota will bring a full system in Lexus models this year.
Its wild.
