Ford’s amazing new tech: Park your car from outside the car

Ford’s amazing new tech: Park your car from outside the car

Ford can now park cars in spaces so tight you couldn’t get out of the door even if you could get the car in the space. The Fully Assisted Parking Aid for backing into perpendicular and angled parking spaces was demonstrated this week in Belgium, along with Obstacle Avoidance technology that deals with slow cars and slower pedestrians in front of you, by braking or steering around them.

Others have demonstrated these technologies before and even shipped some of the tech — particularly the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and E-Class sedans — but with Ford in the game, these technologies are likely to be affordable as well as available.

Push-button parking

The Full Assisted Parking Aid (FAPA?) is a follow-on to Ford’s Active Parking Assist (also FAPA?) for automated parallel parking, done with the driver in the car. As with APA, FAPA uses ultrasonic sensors to scan for an open parking space at speeds as high as 19 mph (30 kph). When the car finds a suitable spot it alerts the driver, who can stay in the car or get out and use a remote to finish the parking job. The car then backs itself in to the parking space.

The car would automatically switch gears, accelerate, steer, and brake. The driver’s function is to keep his or her finger on the button during the maneuver. It wasn’t clear if the car can also park head-first; some communities in the US require head-in parking.

Cars have gotten 16% wider, on average, in the past 25 years, Ford says. Also, people buy bigger cars as they move on in life. Typical parking spaces are 7.5-9.0 feet wide in the US (the typical garage door is 8.0 feet wide). So it’s not just your imagination: it is harder to park your current Dodge Durango than the rust-streaked Toyota Corolla you had just after college. Fully assisted parking also would benefit people with big cars in old houses with tiny garages. That’s especially important in Europe and Asia. Even in the US, the garage may be big inside but a car with its mirrors extended may have less than five inches of clearance on either side of the garage door frame.

Obstacle Avoidance

The other technology unveiled by Ford is Obstacle Avoidance. Sensors direct the steering and brakes to avoid hitting cars and people that are stopped or slowed in the lane ahead. The system first warns the driver with a chime (if there’s time) and if there’s no response from the driver, it assumes control momentarily, scans the roadway for gaps to the left or right of the hazard, and either brakes or moves the car to the side. Ford says a third of drivers who sense a rear-end collision coming don’t take evasive action.

Obstacle Avoidance uses multiple sensors: three radar units, ultrasonic sensors, and a camera to scan as far out as 660 feet (200 meters, or three football fields). Ford’s project was part of a European research project comprising 29 groups, called Accident Avoidance by Active Intervention of Intelligent Vehicles.

Ford already has some other forms of active safety including Active City Stop — what others called city safety — to scan the road and prevent low-speed collisions. Ford also has Lane Keeping Aid (lane departure warning or lane keep assist) to steer the car back into lane if the driver drifts off. A half-dozen automakers offer semi-automated parallel parking, including Audi, BMW, Ford, Land Rover, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Volvo, Ford, Kia, and Volkswagen. Outside the US, Volkswagen offers perpendicular self-parking and others have shown prototypes. Virtually any automaker could do automated parallel parking since the underlying components can be sourced from third parties.

Ford didn’t say how soon the two technologies will come to market. We estimate it would be within the year. Ford sees itself as the leader in democratizing technology, or bringing technologies down in price so almost everyone can afford them. Active Parking Assist, for instance, is already on cars as small as the compact Ford Focus.