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Volkswagen unveils “Park Assist Vision”
By Yoann Besnard on 21 April 2008 | 
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Volkswagen has unveiled the “Park Assist Vision” which independently guides the equipped vehicle, a Passat, into any parking space.
Imagine that you need to park the car, but are too lazy to do it. With the “Park Assist Vision”, get out of the car, slams the door, walks away and aim a remote control back at the car. Your car now proceeds to reverse park itself into the available space, it then independently cuts the engine and activates the door locks. You dreamt it, VW did it. Volkswagen is now presenting a concept system at the Hanover Fair which is capable of perpendicular parking – and of doing so fully automatically. The only thing the driver needs to do is select an available space on the monitor of the navigation system, set the selection lever of the automatic-drive vehicle (DSG) to “P” and alight from the car. The driver can, of course, choose to stay in the vehicle until the vehicle has been manoeuvred into its space.
Two cameras located in the left and right exterior mirrors are responsible for gauging the dimensions of the parking space. The video signals are transmitted to a 2-GHz high-performance computer which then analyses them and sends commands to the steering and drive systems. If the driver has himself initiated the parking manoeuvre, the “Park Assist Vision” will reverse the vehicle into the parking space in accordance with the previously computed course and using electromechanical power steering, the electronic parking brake, DSG and the engine power produced by the idling mixture. Two additional cameras at the front and rear of the vehicle as well as the system’s ultrasound sensors monitor the operation and will stop the vehicle if necessary. The driver may also interrupt the manoeuvre at any time using the remote control.
This new driver assistance system is still in the trial phase of development, and a date has not yet been set for introduction of the system to series production.
