Volkswagen premieres car which parks itself

The driver starts the manoeuvre and then gets out of the car, allowing the system to reverse park into a space before switching itself off

No more parking nightmares – Volkswagen has created the car which parks itself.

The German carmaker has created an electronic car-parking system dubbed ‘Park Assist Vision’ which allows the car to automatically reverse itself into a car park space.

With ‘Park Assist Vision’ the driver starts the manoeuvre and then gets out of the car, allowing the system to reverse park into a space before switching itself off – meaning the driver needn’t squeeze out of a tight spot.

Volkswagen showcased the ground-breaking technology at the Hanover Fair in Germany this week when a Passat equipped with the new gadget parked itself in front of an audience.

The ‘Park Assist Vision’ system uses a series of cameras to judge the available space and processes the information using a state-of-the-art computer, which then sends commands to the steering wheel and drive systems.

However, if the ‘robo-car’ is heading straight for an expensive repair bill, the driver can interrupt the manoeuvre at any time using the remote control.

The ‘Park Assist Vision’ system builds on Volkswagen’s existing park technology called ‘Park Assist’, as seen in the Volkswagen Tiguan and Passat.

With this ‘Park Assist’ system, the driver must control the accelerator and brake, while the car controls the steering, allowing perfect parallel parking for streets.

The ‘Park Assist Vision’ system is still being developed, and a date has not been set for its introduction into Volkswagen’s line-up.