Car That Can Park Itself Put on Sale (in Japan) by Toyota

Yahoo! News - Reuters ^ | 9.1.03

[1stFreedom]

An even better challenge: Can it make a 3 point turn and then parallel park once it hits the other sided.

[LizardQueen]

Actually, it's "ma'am'", not sir.

And the term Luddite tends to come up in discussions about computer hardware and software, which is the biz I'm in...

LQ

[jungleboy]

I can't believe the article didn't mention the 80 PLUS MPG! I thought EVERY article about the new Prius would at least mention the awesome MPG.

Also, fyi- This vehicle has an optional "smart key", that you don't even have to get out of your pocket, that unlocks the doors and starts your engine!

[Victoria Delsoul]

I buy American unless, I can afford a Ferrari.

[VadeRetro]

My grandfather (born in 1879) wrecked two different cars because he tended to fall asleep at the wheel. He started "driving" in the horse-and-buggy era, when you could safely nap on the "drive" home because the horse knew the way.

By the time we have cars that can do that, I'll probably need one.

[Let's Roll]

Me too, although I'm a gadget freak and don't know how we did without all these 'puters, cell phones etc., it is a point of pride with me to be able to parallel park my car.

[ozzymandus]

Let me know when they make one that can drive me home from the bar without getting a DUI.

[Orangedog]

I think this will contribute to more suburban fatness

Tell me about it! We have become too lazy to crank up and down the windows, lock and unlock the doors, and shift gears manually. Now we won't even have to bother with parking.

[Tax Government]

This is great. But what is needed is an extra set of 4 castor-like wheels, all powered but normally retracted, that can spin the car around and move it in any direction. That would allow parking by moving sideways. That would increase parking-lot density hugely, once perfected and deployed among the majority of cars.

[Old Professer]

Hell, my dad had a car that could park itself when I was 14 years old; the bad part was, I had to walk downtown to get the damm thing and bring it home before my mom woke up in the morning.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Can you drive stick? will soon be...

Can you park manually?

[bonesmccoy]

So, have you ever tried driving in Japan?

The roads are half the width of roads in the US.

You wouldn't be able to parallel park in Tokyo either. You've never seen stalls that narrow and roads that thin.

[bonesmccoy]

Japanese drivers are far more courteous than US drivers.

Japanese drivers actually shut off their lights while waiting at intersections. The reason is to avoid blinding the car sitting in the other direction.

Have you ever driven in Japan?

[fire_eye]

Hmmm... I'd better not tell my wife about this. She's so fuming mad at the soccer-moms around here who can't park their mini-vans, that she's threatening to have some bumperstickers printed that say "CAN'T PARK IT? DON'T DRIVE IT!!".

I'm afraid if I told her about this, she'd be ready to vote for Hitlary if Hitlary would mandate that all mini-vans be equipped with this feature...

(btw, I got behind a Prius on the highway to the coast the other day... it had about 30 cars behind it... it looked like it was going in reverse, in the rearview mirror of my GTI...)

[q_an_a]

What about older people that have a hard time turning the wheel hard enough to park. This is going to cause Toyota to replace the Buick as the car of choice of seniors. Low gas mileage so they go once a month at the station outside Sun City, easy stearing and parking, crash test results are very good. Toyota will end another segment of the american market.

[sushiman]

ping for later

[sushiman]

Missed this thread first time around .

" Japanese drivers are far more courteous than US drivers. "

Have American drivers become THAT discourteous since I was last there in 2001 ??? These whackos over here will bow to you ( from inside the car mind you ) to say they are sorry after almost killing you ! That's courteous I guess .

" Japanese drivers actually shut off their lights while waiting at intersections. The reason is to avoid blinding the car sitting in the other direction. "

This is true , however I could counter every positive aspect ( and there are not that many ) of Japanese driving with half a dozen negative ones . Generally speaking they are lousy drivers and break every rule in the book on a regular basis . I enjoy cycling as a hobby and man oh man you have to drive defensively or you won't live long . You've got to assume that every driver is going to screw up and anticipate how and prepare accordingly .

The police are useless , and don't enforce the myriad driving laws with the exception of mandatory seat belt law ! They actually have spot checks !

They are now re-testing senior citizen drivers . If you flunk the driving test , you have to pay a $ 50 penalty and you can keep your license ! Great .

I tried to get a Japanese license a couple of years ago ( got my US license at 16 back in 1968 ) . They flunked me on the driver's test . I didn't put on a good enough " show " for the inspector . Here , the " show " is all important .

[cinFLA]

We have become too lazy to crank up and down the windows, lock and unlock the doors, and shift gears manually.

Ah, the good ol' days when you often saw the driver going down the road while trying to adjust the right rear window manually .....

[cinFLA]

Japanese drivers actually shut off their lights while waiting at intersections. The reason is to avoid blinding the car sitting in the other direction.

Koreans do this also but it seems it goes back to when the batteries and charges were not all that hot.