Intelligent Parking Assist
Yesterday (Oct 9, 2010), I took delivery of a new 2010 Toyota Prius V, with the advanced technology package. This is my first post in what I hope to be a series about some of the gizmos in this amazing car.
Finding the button
The console of the new prius has quite a few more buttons and controls than my 2004 Prius did, and it took me a while to find the button for the Intelligent Parking Assist. Having not read the manual, I found the on-screen help fairly useful. Each press of the button cycles between parallel park, back-in park, and nothing.
The basic mode appears to be the press the button before reaching the space to select the mode. You drive slowly past the space until it beeps, following the instructions. For parallel parking, you shift to reverse, confirm the location on the LCD camera view and then start backing up. You control the brake pedal (speed) and the car takes care of the steering.
For back in parking, the display prompt you to turn the wheel ½ to 1 turn to the left at the first beep, then center it on the second beep, and shift into reverse. After this, it is similar to the parallel parking mode.
Beep
The first thing to stand out is that the infernal beeping is back. I have vague memories of this on the 2004 Prius, and found on the web how to disable it. With the 2010 Prius, the backup beep appears to only be settable through a computer interface by a dealer. This will be something I get done at the first service.
Both parking modes seem to work fairly well. The prompt consists of a view from the backup camera, with a red or green rectangle superimposed where it thinks the car should be placed. The rectangle remains in place during the parking operation, and is a good confirmation that the car and the driver have the same idea about what is happening.
In back-in parking, the manual indicates it can park between two cars, or next to a car on either side. The prompting mode only works in one of the side configurations, but it can still be used. Parallel parking seems to require a vehicle in front of the desired space.
When the car is put in reverse, the image from the backup camera has a green or red rectangle overlayed on it. Red indicates that the IPA is unwilling to park the car. Sometimes with the green, there is also one or more warning flags (usually on the corner of one of the cars). It seems willing to park, but is warning that it is unsure of clearance on that corner.
Trying it out
I’ve probably parked 5 or 6 times so far in back-in mode. It seems to work fairly well. One lot didn’t give me the second beep and there were cars on the other side of the lot, so I stopped, backed up and restarted. It seemed to work the second time.
There isn’t a lot of parallel parking near my house. Yesterday evening I drove somewhere with parallel parking and tried it. Several of the spaces were red, and it wouldn’t assist me. When it did, it worked fairly well. The IPA definitely has a better idea of where the front of the car is than I do. At one point, I stopped, and asked my passenger to lean out the window to make sure I wasn’t going to hit the rear bumper of the car in front of me. It still had about a foot of clearance at that time.
Overall, the systems seems fairly useful. I will have a better impression of it after using it for realistic scenarios rather than just looking for places to park.
