OK, here’s the question. Can you pass your driver’s license test using this car and this feature? If not, why not?
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This is better than tilting the passenger mirror down when in reverse.
The sooner the computers take over the better. People are getting dumber by the day.
Expect to see plenty of crashes coming from the men driving these cars, chances are that they are going to say something like “it’s too slow” and then do what end users do: Crash a machine and blame it for their own stupidity.
They should make it standard on all pink cars.
Holy WOW!!!! AMERICAN innovation!!
Wikipedia.com > Automatic parking
Nevermind
..LATE PASS..
Automatic parallel parking was introduced by Toyota Motor Corporation in Toyota Prius in 2004.
Nice to see the Big 3 are consistently addressing the needs of American families. Presuming you still can afford to drive somewhere you need to park.
I drove past a new Ford Focus with an engine fire on the Auckland Northern Motorway this morning. It was parked beautifully, there beside the highway. I should have stopped to ask him if it had Automatic Parking.
This was the reason:
No way, if you can’t master simple acts such as parallel parking and such you should simply not have the privilege of driving. We should be making it harder to get licensed to operate vehicles not easier.
Driver training should include a course in which you are taught how to regain control of a spinning car, if that’s too rough then you should not be driving.
back when I was about 20 years old I spun my car and hit the center divider on the freeway after being cut off by an asshole crossed 4 sets of double yellows… having had the experience of spinning out of control and knowing how easy it is to do have made me a calmer more calculated driver.
people take driving way to lightly, the less skill it takes to become licensed the more people will die on the road.
Great feature – now I can text while parking.
—————-
This is what they spend money on instead of higher quality and better fuel economy. Just the kind of thinking that allowed Japanese and Korean brands to kick our butts.
Actually, it tells us what they think of us. F’ing insulting.
It is good to see that another automobile maker is thinking of the old people.
I still think the technology is cool. When I was a kid, automatic cars were the future.
Only a few years behind a japan brand as # 5 Dale Denton noted.
I just hope Ford doesn’t develop the uncritical mind set, like other American companies, where unique product features can substitute for quality (long lasting, low maintenance).
As for driver licensing requirements; no way should a state allow a parking car to substitute for non-handicap drivers inability to pass a basic skills test requirement.
I also agree with # 9 MotaMan, there should be some kind of avoidance maneuvering and skid/slide recovery skills test requirement.
What happens if this socially promoted bozo rents a car, borrows a car or buys another car with out this feature!
If you can’t park the old jalopy you might be a hazard to other people and their property.
Let me be the first to say it; We will all benefit when Chinese drivers get these. If you are going to insult me, then you don’t live anywhere where there are thousands and thousands of Chinese drivers who don’t perceive spatial information the same as everyone else, and, being from the “Middle Kingdom”, think they are the center of the damn world. You have never experienced the thrill of driving in city traffic with crazy Chinese on a daily basis. Racist? Well, let me ask you this; Is merely pointing out actual differences in races racist? If so, then the NBA should be loaded with Hispanics. Why isn’t it?
Well, 100 years of CARNAGE ON THE HIGHWAYS, proves HUMANS SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO DRIVE CARS !!! Stupid, Drunk, and TALKING ON CELLPHONES is no way to HANDLE A LETHAL WEAPON !!! The sooner we change to PUBLIC TRANSIT the better !!!
Didja notice the spokes-dweeb said this ‘feature’ is part of the comfort/convenience luxury package for the Lincoln MKZ & MKS models. It’ll be a while (if ever) before it makes it down to mainstream Fords.
p.s. JimD – Fucking relax dude! Maybe you & ECA should find a quiet spot to shout at each other.
Do you REALLy want to make better drivers??
MAKE MORE TIN CANS…MAKE cheap cars that you CAN DIE IN.. It will IMPROVE how a person DRIVES if they are afraid of DIEING..
Aw…. poor Americans … they already have enough trouble when they try to rent cars abroad and are confronted with that confounding foreign invention: the automatic transmission. What is going to happen now that they are forced not only to park into spaces that aren’t twice the size of their car, but to actually do the job themselves!
No wonder they never travel abroad, it must be really scary for them …
#17…
NOT a PROBLEM,,I learned to drive STICK..
Fast forward to Wally type, paint on the floor, rail driving. The only “safe” driving. You can even text message while at it. The sooner it comes, the better. People can’t drive.
I remember a 1940s vintage automobile with a fifth (sideways) wheel in the back. When parking, the fifth wheel was lowered, raising the two back wheels off the ground, allowing the back of the car to go sideways into small parking spots.
Nothing is ever new.
Not a problem in California. The requirement to demonstrate parallel parking was removed from the driving test long ago because “too many people were failing it.”
#21 is right. In fact, the parallel parking requirement was gone in 1978 when I first took the test. I DID have to park facing uphill with the front wheels properly curbed.
And they still don’t make you drive on the freeway, AFAIK. I didn’t get onto a road with a speed limit over 35 on my entire test.
Manual transmissions? I did my time with them. About 10 years. I’m sure I could deal with a clutch if presented with one, but for my own vehicles, I chose not to. Living in West Los Angeles has something to do with it, as you rarely get into top gear here.
As for Ford’s innovation….well I guess it is okay for the incompetent.
I’ve often stated that we should have a ballot proposition here in Calif. to ban valet parking. I mean, if you can drive TO the restaurant, you should be able to park your car. It usually just slows me down and of course, adds to the cost.
Shhhh.. here’s the secret
J/P=?