"When good ideas go bad" Lexus parallel-park feature

[kostby]

a.k.a. The Lexus that COULD NOT park itself!After 'teasing' the story for the entire hour on Sunday, Weekend TODAY co-anchor Campbell Brown was unable to make a Lexus parallel park itself in two live attempts.At the end of the show, she parked it manually, despite being a city-dweller who 'doesn't drive'. According to Brown, it worked in pre-show rehearsals.The spot on the NBC Plaza was big enough to park a city bus (or TWO Vibes). The Lexus was tethered to some Lexus employee with what was apparently an auxiliary brake in case things went horribly wrong, and the car (or it's info-babe occupant) went berserk and tried to kill bystanders.The Lexus salesman(?) on the scene noted that the feature was NOT designed for the tight spaces of urban parking. You need AT LEAST 6' more than the length of the car. Then you have to pull up somewhat BEYOND the front bumper of the car in front of the space, touch a button on the Nav screen, put the car into reverse, touch another button on the Nav screen to enable the feature...Auto Parallel-Parking: Definitely designed for someone with too much money, and not enough toys...

[GrayFox]

if you need that much space then what's the point of making the thing park itself?There are two qualifications to buy that car:1. you're super rich2. you're super lazy Neat concept but that's about it...

[redlava]

Needed six more feet... HA!!With six more feet you could just drive in forward. You wouldn't even need to parallel park the darn thing. It is a stepping stone for the future of autos. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the lazy man's auto won't be either.

[silver_vibe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyZvI6yy0bg

[scherry2]

Quote, originally posted by silver_vibe »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyZvI6yy0bgwhat a bunch of morons... they must not have read the instruction manual. isn't it parallel parking only?

[WaveAction]

personally i would never buy this car no matter how rich i was..it's just a lazy way of people without driving skills to park their car

[mcgusto82]

man1 "Why is the red arrow there?" man2 "obviously it doesn't it like that"lmaof!!! actually i've seen one of the commercials where the car parks itself with less than 2 feet on either end. so 6' on both sides... the lexus sales man was just making that up.Quote, originally posted by RedFire2K »personally i would never buy this car no matter how rich i was..it's just a lazy way of people without driving skills to park their carI would never buy this car for the fact that it stops from 70 in 209 feet. that's right 209 FEET!! according to C&D.

[Raivis]

it can do both parrallel and backing into spots. also when u watch it at about 2 min 45 secs u see the front end of a 03-04 vibe i beleive its neptune in color lol

[azsapphire87]

Wow, thats too cool! I didn't even finish reading the thread because I watched the video when I got to that post, and then I saw the same thing - an 03-04 Vibe, with roof rack, in the parking lot at 2:45! But it looks black to me.

[GMJAP]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXykmGtIsA8&NRThese guys had better luck.If you can afford a car like that..... get a driver.