This is great! Now people lacking the skills to operate a motor vehicle will have the confidence to set out in urban traffic anyway. I'm so pleased that Ford is addressing this major transportation problem, i.e., not enough incompetent drivers on the road.

Its a great way to sell an item that both improves milage and makes things a bit easier... Alot of people can drive but cant park all that well.

Yes yes any idea that promotes lasiness and non-thinking in people driving a ton of killer metal down the road must be a good thing.

Dude the problem isn't with the cars its the 'Driver Ed.' In my day fathers had enough time to take their kid out to a quiet spot every sunday for some practice. Now-a-days even the professional driving schools are little more than a revolving door.

By all means save gas but let's teach people to use their heads!

I agree. Driver's ed is a joke and so is this park-assist. Either learn to park or don't drive. Parking is not all that hard and should be an integral part of learning to drive.

Man you all sound OLD. Its just a nice gizmo everyone has wanted from time to time to make fitting into that space a bit simpler and less stressful.

Amazing how those who love to be negative of all American auto companies will lash out and fail to see the forest for the trees.

To me this type of innovation has a highly important role: Get the average driver into the habit of letting the vehicle take control. These are the baby steps by which we will ease into fully autonomous vehicles over the next 12 years or so.

Fully autonomous vehicles would offer the chance to save countless lives, capital, reduce injuries, and reduce fuel use (and pollution).

Besides...there are far too many people who can't park in the middle of a spot. Large vehicles, small vehicles, and everything in between. My neighbor always parks right on the line of our parking spots, I typically give up on at least 10% of all parking spots at stores because one car in the adjacent spot is in at a very akward angle where they sit too close to the spot or actually straddle multiple parking spots (more common in the "compact" parking spots).

Whats going to happen when all these gizmos get wet or old.
Will the driver have to drive a holding pattern till they run out of petrol or spend hours holding up traffic learning to park?
Ok some of them can be disconnected, very few will have parts support, a few non techs will be able to afford the repair or find someone prepared to tinker. the rest will possibly retire to an early grave.
On the positive side;
Some will last beyond he life of the vehicle.
This worrying trend could have been forseen when the first push bike with inflatable tyres was foisted on an unwitting public.
grumpy old man.

Chuckles, "What i find funny about this is how useless this is in most places. Seriously, i live in Phoenix now, and aside from the downtown areas in the major towns, the ability to parallel park is unnecessary. I came from NJ where it was even more useless, in both places, most of your parking experience is in store parking lots where you angle park. Its been 19 years since i got my license, and while back then i could parallel park like you wouldn't believe, i assure you, i can just barely muddle through since its a skill i've barely used in the last 15 years. While i have issues with the poor skills in modern drivers, a parking assist system is actually quite useful for most people who rarely face parallel parking like m'self.

Since many deluxe car drivers have not (may never) fully mastered parallel parking, slow traffic while trying to park and often damage other cars in their efforts, this optional gadget is more than welcomed in many communities.

This is absurd.
Next we will get power windows, the ability to roll up windows should be mandatory.
Next we will get power door locks, and when both fail and people cannot open the windows or unlock the doors they will die horribly in their cars.
Remote door locks are cheap once you have power door locks, so they may come next - probably not, thieves would just get the codes and loot any car they chose.
It now becomes clear electric steering is part of a plot for the state to be able to divert cars whenever and however they want.
Actually, like “None”, last time I found a spot about 175% the length of my Civic, I says to me self
" Aha, I can parallel park quite well".
After three tries I says " Aha, I used to be able to parallel park quite well".
They would be stupid to NOT include a little software once they have Electric Power Assisted Steering.
To do it with HYDRAULIC power steering may be stupid.

This feature can be quite useful when somebody moves from a smaller to a longer/wider car, or a car with different wheelbase/overhang.

Actually it could also be used as an educational tool for novice drivers. First they allow the computer to do the parking, while they observe and remember the best approach angles and positions when to start steering. Then they try do it on their own.

Possibly the skills needed for good parallel parking are very similar to those required for forklift drivers.

Come on - it is a handy gadget - I would love it (I am not very good at parallel parking).

A fully automatic car is an interesting idea, but may take some time to get right.

Controlling the car is more or less done.
Knowing roughly where we are is done using GPS.
Ditto for knowing where we want to go.
Knowing where the car in front is can be determined using radar and has been demonstrated in "active cruise control", but there is still a lot to do.

Driving on highways should be easy enough.
Driving in bumber to bumper traffic should be easy enough.
You could probably modulate traffic lights to signal directly to cars (if you even needed to).
But tying it all together will be tricky, as will be deciding how to handle insurance costs.

It should be easy enough (say in10 years) to build a car that can drive better than many old drivers who still drive, but this won't help much in a crash.
Also there are many situations where you have to push out in heavy traffic that would be difficult to code for.

It will be interesting to see how the driverless car progresses.

Will it be apart of the future that happens (like flat screen TVs and cellphones) or that doesn't happen, like the flying car.

I think fully automating cars is not so challenging as the initial introduction – the mix of automatic with non.
After that the SW engineers would be in hog heaven.
Ultimately it could do what mahonj says, plus:
Greatly reduce accidents – A comprehensive intercommunicating system would prevent 99+% of all accidents. Very few of the equipment failures should lead to accidents.
Greatly speed traffic on freeways. Separation could be minimized. Construction zone speeds could be raised.
Greatly speed traffic at intersections – haven’t we all dreamed that when the light turns green, all ten drivers ahead of us will move out simultaneously?
Full automation of cars has been studied over-and-over, since the first traffic jam, I believe.

My 2007 Prius has electric power assisted steering, and intelligent parking assistant (IPA) came with the package that I ordered, but it uses an optical video camera instead of ultrasonic sensors. I can usually parallel park just as good and faster than the park assistant, but I use it occasionally just for kicks, or to show off. My wife, who is a good driver, but who has problems judging the comlpicated geometry of parallel parking, usually takes longer than the park assistant, and sometimes needs a couple trys. But she doesn't use it, because it' a bit complicated to use. First you have to stop parallel to and a meter or two ahead of the space, otherwise the camera doesn't get a good view and you will end up parked at an angle. Then you have to confirm and possibly correct the displayed parking position on the screen. Then you have to ease off the brake without completely releasing it, otherwise it will interrupt the assist, and if you let roll too fast, it will also interrupt the assist. But sometimes when on a hill, or when there is a bump, it's not possible to keep moving without releasing the brake, and it interrupts the automatic. And you have to carefully watch that you don't bump into anything if the calculated trajectory is a little off, because it won't warn you if you get too close to something. It just follows the precalculated path. So the new system looks like it has eliminated most of these inconveniences and will be more practical to use.

All modern, well equipped cars will already have most of the hardware necessary for such a system, so the extra cost for such a system is mostly just a matter of a little extra software.

Consumer Report's top all around best car of the year, the Toyota Lexus LS 460L has this feature as standard equipment for a mere $76,500.

Their lower cost top best small SUV choice is the Toyota RAV-4 at less than 1/3 the price @ $23K, without automatic parking.

No need to mention that they picked the Toyota Prius @ $24K (without automatic parking) as the top green car of the year.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/1205-driverless_car.htm

Yet another pointless luxury. What's next? A colostomy bag holder?

The ideal future is a car that can drive itself ... and we are getting closer.

Computer controlled cars will have less accidents, never have to squint to read signs (they will have an integrated map) and never get speeding fines.

Jack, it's not a holder; it's a colostomy bag changer silly! Of course, the factory supplied ostomy bags are blue and oval. Just plug your full bag into the dash port, and let the Adblue & engine exhaust treatment takes care of the rest - sparkling clean and ready to use again and again!

@ JC ... a colostomy bag 'O bio fuel brings "Oh Crap" a whole new green tinge. It may be taking the green 'movement' a step too far.

Hey wait a minute! Jack may be on to something; don't some diesels (like the diesel BMWs and upcoming diesel VW Touareg and Audi Q7) use urea injection to almost completely eliminate NOx emissions?

EPAS is a good, green thing, and functionality added to the vehicle as a result of it's capability should be expected. I'm amazed what a bunch a goobers read this site and complain about everything. I've never once heard or seen anyone complain about Toyota having such a system on their vehicles, yet when Ford comes out with one that very possibly will be superior, they get reamed here for the most part. Unbelievable, but expected I suppose.

Oh come on Roy! We were just having a little fun. You gotta figure we're all a bunch of technophiles or else we wouldn't be here.