Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Those new Lexus 460L sedans that can parallel park themselves are pretty cool but from what I’ve read they’re missing a key feature that Bosch is now offering as part of their own Parking Assistant option. The Bosch system already uses four ultrasound sensors on the vehicle to help drivers avoid collisions while parallel parking but now adds two additional ones for measuring the size of a prospective parking spot. I don’t care how accurate your auto-parking system is, if the car’s not gonna fit into the spot you have a problem.

With the Bosch system once an available spot is found the driver simply has to activate his turn signal so the vehicle knows what side the spot is on and then drive past at a speed of up to 20 km/h. The sensors will precisely measure the gap between the two vehicles and will let you know if the spot is big enough, a tight squeeze or too small.

The Parking Space Measurement System is currently available on the Citroen C4 Picasso but there’s no information on when other vehicles will adopt it.

[ Bosch Parking Space Measurement System ] VIA [ Gizmag ]