BMW PARK ASSIST

What is this. BMW copies Toyota? What has the world come to. ;-)

hahahaha

Will - the Bosch system was bought by several companies. The Lex was the first new car. BMW will have a new car next year so you should see this system there.

Park assist is a cool feature but few will want to pay the thousands it cost. I like toys though so sign me up

actually a park assist isnt developed overnight. so copying.. no.. improving .. yes

i still think park assist is useless

but this one actually parks a car in your garage as well as into regular parking spaces. oh and the main point is that NO DRIVER INPUT IS REQUIRED. unlike the lexus .. where you have to finish the job.

ya whatever name your excuses. It is copying when Toyota does, but it is improving when BMW does it. Call it whatever you want they have just done what the Japanese have doing all these years, improving an existing product. Oh I forgot once again the standards don't apply to BMW

well, to give you an example kart 1,
infiniti was the first to introduce the back up camera, if im not mistaken,
and others IMPROVED on it, by making it a better picture, better camera etc.

to copy ones idea would be simply to implement the same exact idea in a differnt vehicle.

I know what improving is and what copying is. I don't need that to be defined. But my point was - where are the critics who shun copying/improving a feature. Apparently they are quiet now since BMW is doing the same thing, and will do so in the future as well.

To make it clear I am not attacking BMW here.

I think that BMW had cameras in back in the late 80s, the old 7 could be installed with it.

Let's see first the platform sharing now this - BMW fans you're loosing all that is precious to you. But its okay right, since BMW is doing it there's no problem with it.

"I'm sure Toyota will have updated their system as well."

yea, once again toyota will be on the rebound.

oh and btw the reason the system would take three years to come into effect, is because the driver is no longer in the car. and the car has to think on itself 100%, i.e. watch out for pedestrians who jump out infront of it. etc.

we'll bmw would be on the rebound if they didnt already have a system. but guess what.. its already at hand, once again i dont really care for the system, but im sure if they started developing it when they heard about the lexus system it wouldnt have already come up.

I'm not sure who first came up with this system, but Bosch and Simens are German company's and the ones who generally invent most systems for cars then work with a OEM to fine tune it.

I agree such systems are truly useless, worthless features that only bring the car cost higher. What idiot would want to push a button and have his car park itself in the garage, if I made it all the way home why don't I just drive all the way into the garage THEN leave the car so I wouldn't walk under the rain, instead of leaving my car outside and push a button and have my car pull intself in the garage. Park assist found in many cars is an impressive technology but are they really useful? One that I can think it MIGHT be useful is Toyota/Lexus pulling side way between two cars, but still would not pay a penny to have that option in my car.

It was acknowledged, part of the mail selling point of the LS. God knows how many times it was referenced. but its practicality is not very high.

Designer1

How about the fact that with 2 cars in the Garage you would be hard pressed to open the car doors, so if you had a system that allows you to get out first and then let the car park itself then that would be great ?
Then there is the Gadget Factor ( If it sounds and looks cool, Get IT )

good point, but then how would you get into the car the next morning

SunRoof ; )

sexiness? :)

or just the fact that it isnt an LS

looks more like a maybach to me. i guess your referring to the front.. and yeh i got sick of the MB commercials that made that comparison.....(right).. hey if thats a selling point for you then use it, as for what i said.. that was the truth.. and once again you give me an arguement (i use that term loosely) thats nothing but a OPINION.

See! I said it about a year ago...BMW's version of the park assist would kill the non-intuitive Lexus version. The BMW version will handle the pedals & everything, parallel park at the push of a button, & make tight parking spaces available in a large 7-series.

Those who feel park assist is useless probably don't live n the city. It would be great to not have to squeeze out your car in a tight space, & it's great for Orientals taking a year to parallel park in rush hour traffic.

I will agree for once BMW looked to Lexus for an idea, but that said...Lexus's version of park assist is nothing but useless technology.

Orientals are the rugs. Asians are the people "that take a year to parrallel park..."

On a side note... objects are oriental. People are asian.

I'm pretty sure that's right.

The Lexus system requires little driver involvement eitehr. If you've seen it in action, you know that the most important role the driver has is to choose the distance between front and rear vehciles once the vehicle has pulled itself into its spot.

Now I dont know how often y'all parallel park, but this decision varies every time I park. Do you park closer to the car behind you, because the one in front will need more room to get out? Do you move up because the car in front can easily drive off, whereas the one behind needs to work his way out of a tight spot. Lexus very smartly left this final decision to the driver.

Stop criticizing a feature which you dont know enough about. And stop saying how much better the Bimmer system will be, when no one has come close to trying it yet. And while we're stopping things, MunichRob stop with the racism. Okay, now I'll stop writing.

For the record, Oriental does mean coming from Asian origin, not a rug.

"1970toyotamarc" I've seen countless videos of the LS's parking feature & can see for myself, it's not very quick, easy, or convenient to use.

Also you're wrong on the testing part...Half a year ago autospies posted a video of the BMW version in works on a 5-Series, showing it works by the push of a button, two pushes of the button to be exact.

Also I'm not racist either, it's actually a fact that Asian drivers are not as skilled as American or European drivers.

"it's actually a fact that Asian drivers are not as skilled as American or European drivers"

thats a fact? i guess you learn something new everyday

and the drivers in tokyo drift were probably one in a million :)

Where did you get the proven "facts" about Asians worse than Europeans and Americans in driving??? Nevermind you don't need to answer that question - I have an idea where you got that information from.

yes im aware of the fact that the deville was first to incorporate the nightvision. im not sure how it works in the s-class but it might not be on the windshield, instead on the monitor infront of the steering wheel.. im not sure though

does the pacifica also have nightvision...

MunichRob

I hope you have some links to a site that can validate that statement

EVERYONE NOT FROM AMERICA HAS MORE SKILLS THAN AMERICAN DRIVERS

I can see the Toyota Brady Bunch is hard at work feeding people the usual BS.

When are you guys going to get it?
The Japanese manufacturers never brought anything useful to the table. The only thing they did was to force everybody to make cheap crapy cars.

You guys might want to read the following before continuing your usual TOILET crap.

"In 1992, Volkswagen employed self-parking technology in its IRVW (Integrated Research Volkswagen) Futura concept car. The IRVW parked with full autonomy – the driver could get out of the car and watch as it parked itself. A PC-sized computer in the trunk controlled the system. Volkswagen estimated that this feature would've added about $3,000 to the price of a car, and it was never offered on a production model.

In 2003, Toyota began offering a self-parking option, called Intelligent Parking Assist, on its Japanese Prius hybrid."

Seems to me that it took them 11 years to COPY yet another German invention.

highfive to ben for the insight

"I can see the Toyota Brady Bunch is hard at work feeding people the usual BS."

The German Partridge family is working quite hard too.

;)

well this is still in the preliminary stages, its not the final product.. the lexus LS needs a couple of feet in the front and back to park itself.. so whats a mere 8 inches?

and read my post again, because i never said nething about you complaining, i was also just expressing a point in the quote. :)

More like Masters at copying German technology and claiming it as their own.
Did you notice that the VW system was fully automated back in 1992?
Toyota is 11 years late for the party and come out with some half ass self parking that requires brake input and it doesn't even finish the parking job.

Somebody fell asleep at TCD (Toyota Cloning Department).

But doesn't a BMW lose some of its appeal with any kind of auto-park feature?

Surely those who want the "ultimate driving machine" would want to get the most out of even those last few moments driving into their garage.

Don't you all know?...since this is a BMW that we're talking about, it will be the best system, and forget about tht others who have similar system because they don't count since they have no heritage or are copycats, or are not an enthusiat's company. And remember, when you push the button to start the parking process you will get the "magical feel" that everyone talks about. How could anyone argue against this!?

BMW - Soon to be known as the "Ultimate Parking Machine".

parking in the garage with soul, feel, magic etc.....
cant wait.

Gee, I wonder how NASA lands that Space Shuttle and at night?

hmmm, I guess the pilot just looks out the window holding a flashlight down at the runway for those perfect landings.

In fact, I think Disneyland had a display about self parking cars back in 1967.

Will the DMV allow this self paking crap on when taking a driving test.

Well maybe for the ladies that have trouble.

LOL

The US Navy has using this technology for many decades with the way they land jets onto aircraft carriers at night in total darkness.

And all the car companies would like to thank Toyota for making a self parking system that is cheap enough to put in production model cars because now all the car companies can just get a car and take the PCB apart and make their version.

adoptgreyhound Toyota does not use Bosch and Simens ,they use Denso!And for the record Toyota had the technology first and BMW just plain sucks !!!

Lexus toyota Bmw whoever there all copying mercedes infact who were the first to introduce radar sensors in there cars and without this we wouldnt have progressed to this sort of technology

"2JZSoarer"

From what I hear VW introduced this technology back in 92' on a concept car, so technically they had it first. Their version just never went into production for some reason.

Did that version work?

y keeping on mention that VW has it first. Were is the techonolgy today not yesterday but today. Jetta doesnt have it, bettle uh nope, passet let me see uh no and phaeton well let see i dont see it then its a no. Introducing it first is far different from put it to production first.

While I have not read this artice at all nor have I read any of tha posts, I'm jus gonna say that park assist is tha most useless "innovation" on a car, since that handle thats located up by your head and in some cars even drivers can use it to rest their hands.

Come on now, I thougnt you were supposed to have both of your hands on steering wheel, and not havin one of your hands rest so that you can fall asleep and cause accident.

But again, without even reading any posts I know that "Will" and company are claiming Toy ota came with this "revolutionary" innovation... as well as that useless handle I was talkin about.

Only ppl that drive Lexus seem need these useless "innovations," lol.


G

It seems useless because Toyota had it on a production version first right? Is that the reason. Your opinion would have been different if lets say VW did get theirs working on a production vehicle back in the day, right?

nothing is validated in the market until BMW launches it. Its the privelege of being a market leader and the the owner of the "best' brand in all of automotordom.

I'm waiting for the day there is a "Will" post that doesn't mention Lexus or Toyota. Liking a manufacturer is understandable, but c'mon already.

Will, but at least BMW doesn't copy another car company like ToyLex does.

None of these systems will prevent your trophy bride from scuffing your $20K rims trying to reach the ATM!
Can BMW come up with a system for that please.