# Self parking: can I trust it?



## masto (Nov 11, 2018)

I’ve had my Model 3 for about a month and it’s been fun driving it and also showing it off to people. One of the first rides with a friend was to pick something up at the mall where they happened to have a lot of partially filled low-traffic parking lots in the back. We were excited to try out the self parking feature. Although I’ve had this on other cars, and I’ve had occasion maybe once in 10 years to want to use it, I’m still interested in the technology and Tesla’s implementation is a lot more ambitious than the one in my 2008 Prius.

So, backing in: on the first try it worked perfectly. Backed in, then pulled forward to straighten out and center in the space, straight back and stopped. Very impressive. But after that, I was unable to get it to work. When I say unable, I mean I’d drive slowly past a spot, wait for the P symbol to appear, switch into reverse, press the button, let off the brake, and watch the car steer straight toward the rear corner of an adjacent vehicle to the point where we were both convinced there was going to be a collision and I’d hit the brake to abort. Tried 3 or 4 times in different spots, letting it inch closer each time before giving up. I was not willing to run the experiment to completion for fear of damaging mine and someone else’s car.

I’ve been thinking about this on and off and it occurred to me that I might have been positioning the car poorly. I think the only thing I was paying attention to was the screen, watching for the parking indicator. But it may have come on at a point where no driver, human or computer, could successfully back into the space. So the other day I was in a parking garage and passed a spot. I figured I’d give it another shot, and this time did my best to estimate where I would stop the car if I were going to back into the space. Sure enough, there’s quite a distance where it says (P) on the screen, during much of which you’re way too close to back up. So this time, it was probably, maybe, going to work. It came super close to the car on the driver’s side and was going very slowly. If I were in control, I would have been able to judge whether to continue, but it got to a point where I didn’t know what the computer was going to do and there was zero safety margin, so I stopped it. It’s possible it was a second away from stopping, pulling forward, and going in again with more space on the left, but again in order to find out I would have risked scratching up mine and someone else’s car.

So my question to the forum is whether souls braver than me have tried just letting Elon take the wheel to see what happpens, in particular when it looks like it’s not going to make it. Did your car get worryingly close but then stop and do a more complex maneuver to get into the space? I think the manual says it can do up to something like 7 moves, and it does have all those sensors, so it’s within reason that it would have done the right thing. On the other hand, I’ve seen posts here of people using Summon and having it suddenly veer into a wall, so I know the sensors are not perfect, and the human in charge is supposed to watching carefully prepared to take over. I feel like I’ve done my job of taking over and it was hard to believe the car would have avoided a collision, in particular the times when it was literally heading straight toward another car’s bumper.

For the moment, “showing off auto park” is not in the set list for my Model 3 demos. I want to make a good impression, not get laughed at for hitting something or being unable to successfully pull off a trivial perpendicular parking move. But maybe I was being overly cautious. I’d like to find out without putting my car and reputation at risk. 

Thanks for any insight and experiences...


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## BigBri (Jul 16, 2016)

I found it usually gets closer to the car on the drivers side. Maybe pulling forward further will give it more space but it does run it really tight. The feature is mostly a novelty and not really practical to use yet as its pretty slow. I never tried the parallel park as I'd be afraid of it curbing the wheels but atleast it looks useful.


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## masto (Nov 11, 2018)

BigBri said:


> I found it usually gets closer to the car on the drivers side. Maybe pulling forward further will give it more space but it does run it really tight. The feature is mostly a novelty and not really practical to use yet as its pretty slow. I never tried the parallel park as I'd be afraid of it curbing the wheels but atleast it looks useful.


I tried parallel park one time and it did a perfect job. But there was so much space between the cars it was not much of a challenge. The times when I could really use it are also the times when I'm in a crowded high pressure situation with people trying to get around me and a space that barely fits the car. It's too fussy and slow to engage in those situations, which is why I think it isn't very practical.

I'm still curious what it would have done if I'd let it keep trying, so hoping to hear from people who did.


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## Gerbopyl (Oct 20, 2018)

I've done the parallel park thing a few times now with big and small gaps and it has done significantly better than I would have. It does get scary close to cars and curbs sometimes but no accidents yet.


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## TrevP (Oct 20, 2015)

I trust it with reservation. Keep your foot close to the brake and watch your surroundings very carefully. The worst part is that because it's slow other car drivers tend to try and blow past you and it freaks the system out (or me).

But I do like it for the Model X on account of it being such a large car with terrible rear view visiblity


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

I don't trust it yet. And it was as slow as molasses.

Supposedly an update is due real soon.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

I don't think I've had a need to parallel park since I've had the car. Autopark for perpendicular or angled parking seems ridiculous, so I have yet to even try this feature.


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## sjg98 (Aug 18, 2018)

It does alright. You certainly should watch it like a hawk, like you are riding in a passenger seat of a teen driver.
If anything I find it very conservative. 
Only about 1/3 of the time in NYC does it identify a parallel parking spot as able to self-park.
So its always happy to identify and park in the Cadillac size deluxe spaces, while I have no choice but to park manually in much tighter spots regularly.
Maybe outside NYC it would do a little better.


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## B.Silva (Sep 30, 2018)

Umm, no, don't trust it. On day 3 of owning my M3, I tried Auto Park to perpendicular park at work. The spots are tight so I thought Auto Park would be a nice help, even if it's slow. Long story short, there is a large concrete post between spots. I was watching the mirrors and cameras like a hawk. I thought, hmm, it's getting awfully close to that post. I put the car in park, got out, and saw the right rear fender lodged against the post (which is wrapped by carpet). It put a dent in the side. Not happy. I'm talking with Tesla and hopefully they will pay to have it repaired. There's no way it couldn't have seen that large post (and how useful would it be if it didn't?). If you look at the second pic taken a few days later, I had parked in the left spot shown, with a colleague's M3 shown in the right spot. When I auto parked, there were cars parked in both adjacent spots. Ouch.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

I was about to back into a spot at work yesterday and looked down to catch the P. I thought why not. After 5 months I've only tried it one other time and I messed it up. I hit the P and turned loose. It did a good job til it was almost all the way back in the spot and it turned the wheel too far one way, but I didn't give up and let it continue. It pulled forward and then back again, put it dead square in the spot and didn't back up over the curb.

This is a bit interesting to get used to. One a different brand of car with self park you had to still control the brake and gear, it handled the steering. The other car did it almost flawlessly every time though.

So the very first time the 3 attempted I interfered, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do and what the car was going to do for me. Yesterday - it did it all. Brakes, steering shifting R to D to R to P. It was quite surprising and good, let alone make me smile once again at this car - loved it.


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## Bokonon (Apr 13, 2017)

My car prompted me to auto-park on the left-side of a one-way street today. It has done this before, but this time the available space was much longer than the previous time (it probably about 2x the length of the car), so I was curious to see how it would handle it. Apart from a harrowing moment when I was convinced it was about to curb one of the rims, auto-park performed marvelously, using the entire space available to complete the maneuver.

Then I got out of the car and noticed one small problem: I had parked right in front of a fire hydrant.


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## Bibs (Jun 9, 2018)

I trust it for both perpendicular and parallel, having tested it many times.

That said, it's too slow to be practical. Just a fun demo for people.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

I recall at least one person who allowed it to autopark next to a curved section of road, saying that it ended up curbing a rim. So I suggest only attempting this along straight sections of road.


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## ADK46 (Aug 4, 2018)

Of course, the simple answer to the question is "No, don't trust it", as the manual advises. There is also the "captain of the ship" imperative, which will apply as long as we have steering wheels and pedals.

I've used it 2-3 times, parallel parking. Worked great, and faster than me (slow). I have no experience with other cars, but I hope this is proven technology that Tesla bought from some established source.

I don't think it sees curbs. It seems to key off the other cars, so it would not be wise to use it when the cars ahead and behind will not serve as sole guides. The ultrasonic sensors may or may not see narrow things, like posts.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

ADK46 said:


> Of course, the simple answer to the question is "No, don't trust it", as the manual advises. There is also the "captain of the ship" imperative, which will apply as long as we have steering wheels and pedals.
> 
> I've used it 2-3 times, parallel parking. Worked great, and faster than me (slow). I have no experience with other cars, but I hope this is proven technology that Tesla bought from some established source.
> 
> I don't think it sees curbs. It seems to key off the other cars, so it would not be wise to use it when the cars ahead and behind will not serve as sole guides. The ultrasonic sensors may or may not see narrow things, like posts.


I've only used it once- for left side parallel parking. No other cars around, no lines, only curbs(6") for alignment. Perfect parking job, stayed 10-12" away from curbs(front, back, side). Probably faster than I could have parked. I'm on 48. So, only 1 try so far, but no problems.


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## ADK46 (Aug 4, 2018)

FRC said:


> I've only used it once- for left side parallel parking. No other cars around, no lines, only curbs(6") for alignment. Perfect parking job, stayed 10-12" away from curbs(front, back, side). Probably faster than I could have parked. I'm on 48. So, only 1 try so far, but no problems.


You mean you weren't parking between two other cars? I thought the "P" would appear only if you passed a spot bounded by cars ... it worked for just curbs to define the spot?


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Bokonon said:


> Then I got out of the car and noticed one small problem: I had parked right in front of a fire hydrant.


had something somewhat similar happen, but caught it before actually got to the parking part. 
I was on a tight residential street and drove past a driveway, 2 cars and then an open space. Pushed the ( P ) and the car began to maneuver in reverse.... Past the open space and starting to go past the parked cars and aiming for the driveway space. Even though the process began when forward of the open space by a full car length, AP was still looking at the driveway opening half a block back.
on other occasions, have used it on wide open streets (with enough space for 2 cars to park) and it did fantastic at about the same speed a driver would parallel park.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

ADK46 said:


> You mean you weren't parking between two other cars? I thought the "P" would appear only if you passed a spot bounded by cars ... it worked for just curbs to define the spot?


Yes, this was a cobblestone street with parallel parking spots on both sides where the curbing extends wider than the roadway leaving individual spots that are bounded on three sides by the curbing. No other cars were anywhere near.


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## Lgkahn (Nov 21, 2018)

i used it and it parked fine, but then instead of centering once in the spot kept going forward too much and i stopped it , and backed up and centered it myself.. not sure what the heck it was dooing.. it did see the curb, you can tell by looking and the blue curving lines to see where it is going as it parks.


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## Hotblack Desiato (Nov 3, 2018)

I hate parking so I use it all the time - both parallel and perpendicular. I have never had an issue with it, although it is pretty slow in that it does it in two, and sometimes three, movements. Still I like it. And of course my son loves to watch the wheel spin around...


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

It's worked well for me so far (though surprising me once by parking on the wrong side of a narrow road when I thought it was going to park to the right).

You do want to watch it—especially with tight situations. Additionally, when parking on grades/hills, it will not turn the wheels before going into park. I got a lovely parking ticket in San Francisco recently because that completely slipped my mind after having Autopilot park for me.


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## Jarettp (Dec 1, 2018)

Lgkahn said:


> i used it and it parked fine, but then instead of centering once in the spot kept going forward too much and i stopped it , and backed up and centered it myself.. not sure what the heck it was dooing.. it did see the curb, you can tell by looking and the blue curving lines to see where it is going as it parks.


It's parking how most people should park in lieu of painted parking sections. If every person centers their car perfectly between the two cars, you'll eventually start losing spaces to park. By moving forward some you start to gain additional parking spaces as others do the same.


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## Gabzqc (Oct 15, 2016)

Lets make a poll about this...


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## stinalynn (Dec 18, 2018)

Maybe a dumb question, but how do you "enable" autopark? We have the enhanced auto pilot, but I have never once seen the blue P show up even when driving slowly in a parking lot where there are available spaces between 2 cars. Does "summon" have to be turned on? We do not currently have it on. Thanks in advance!


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

stinalynn said:


> Maybe a dumb question, but how do you "enable" autopark? We have the enhanced auto pilot, but I have never once seen the blue P show up even when driving slowly in a parking lot where there are available spaces between 2 cars. Does "summon" have to be turned on? We do not currently have it on. Thanks in advance!


No, summon does not have to be turned on. In my experience the manual is inaccurate when it says the "P" icon will appear when driving under 10-15 mph and the car "sees" a spot. Rather, I see the spot, pull past it as if I was going to parallel park or back into a spot, shift to reverse, then the "P" icon appears. Release the wheel and brake, press the icon, and enjoy the "slow" ride!!


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## ltphoto (Jan 30, 2018)

stinalynn said:


> Maybe a dumb question, but how do you "enable" autopark? We have the enhanced auto pilot, but I have never once seen the blue P show up even when driving slowly in a parking lot where there are available spaces between 2 cars. Does "summon" have to be turned on? We do not currently have it on. Thanks in advance!


It is limited in the situations where it will work. You must be going under 10mph. Only parallel or perpendicular parking, no angled spots. There must be cars already parked on both sides (or ends) of the empty spot. It won't park in a spot just based on the lines on the pavement. It works reliably for me in these situations.


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## Bokonon (Apr 13, 2017)

stinalynn said:


> Maybe a dumb question, but how do you "enable" autopark? We have the enhanced auto pilot, but I have never once seen the blue P show up even when driving slowly in a parking lot where there are available spaces between 2 cars. Does "summon" have to be turned on? We do not currently have it on.


In addition to the tips shared above, I've found that you sometimes have to drive well past the available space in order for the car to see it... sometimes an additional 1/2 - 1 full car length.

The other thing I've noticed is that my car seems to be a lot better at identifying parallel-parking opportunities and performing them than perpendicular. Perpendicular is very hit-or-miss for me. Even when the car finds a perpendicular space, many times nothing will happen when I tap the "Start" button after shifting into reverse... the car just sits there, and the "Start" button is still visible, no matter how many times you tap it.

Here in Massachusetts, you have exactly 1.82 seconds to pull into a perpendicular space before the person behind you starts honking manically or tries to take the space from you, so needless to say, I haven't spent a lot of time trying to debug this behavior...


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## Ken Voss (Feb 2, 2017)

I find the Auto-Park feature as it is implemented today is pretty much useless. It only recognizes a small fraction of available spaces and once engaged it parks way way to slow. This is a feature that has not been enhanced since I took delivery of my car in April 2018 and in my opinion needs work before it is more than a novelty and is actually something that I would use.


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## Derik (Jul 26, 2017)

I would love it if it just found a spot based on the lines instead of always having to park between two cars. 
Most of the time I try to park away from other vehicles (thanks to the person who slammed their door into my fender...) instead of next to other people. 
I'm wondering what they are going to do with the whole FSD option with it dropping you at the door and finding a spot in an empty lot. Is it just going to drive around until 2 people park with an empty spot between them? 

Overall impressing by me is it works when it tells me it will, but it is way to slow to be useful.


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

ltphoto said:


> It is limited in the situations where it will work. You must be going under 10mph. Only parallel or perpendicular parking, no angled spots. There must be cars already parked on both sides (or ends) of the empty spot. It won't park in a spot just based on the lines on the pavement. It works reliably for me in these situations.


My car has somewhat learned how to park in my driveway at home (I back in for charging purposes). It's an open, dirt/gravel driveway with only the house on one side and a ditch to the other side of a space that another car could fit, but it has recognized it as a parking spot a few times and successfully parked in it once.


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

> *Self parking: can I trust it?*


IMHO Only AFTER you triple your PD insurance and take all your deductibles to zero.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Bokonon said:


> In addition to the tips shared above, I've found that you sometimes have to drive well past the available space in order for the car to see it... sometimes an additional 1/2 - 1 full car length.


to this point, one time using it for street parking for me went like this:
on a very narrow two-way residential street with cars parked on both sides (effectively making it one car at a time able to use the street). Turned onto the street and passed 2 or 3 cars parked on the right curb, followed by a driveway, one more car, an open curb space, and 2 or 3 more cars parked. when passing the driveway, it signaled there was a parking space. I ignored it and continued. Passed the single parked car and the ( P ) went away, passed the open space and when next to the next parked car the ( P ) re-appeared and I tapped it. Car went into reverse, passed the open space, and started to pass the next parked car when I canceled it because it was still aiming for the driveway.


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## Bokonon (Apr 13, 2017)

Related question... Self parking: do other people trust it?

I had an incident this morning while auto-parallel-parking between two cars in front of my son's preschool. Usually, I don't use Auto Park when either of the vehicles I'm parking between is occupied. This is because Auto Park will often stop within inches the vehicle in front or back, which someone sitting inside those vehicles may find alarming.

This morning, however, I did not notice that the car at the back of the space was occupied until partway through the maneuver. At that point, I figured I'd just let it complete, especially since the woman in the minivan behind me appeared to be looking down at her phone. Well, at some point, she must have looked up and saw my car a few inches from hers, because she hopped out, gave my trunk lid a solid slap, and got back into her minivan... all while Auto Park was still fine-tuning its position within the space.

Now, we all know that all school drop-off zones are located within reality-distortion fields that cause people to behave irrationally. It therefore seemed unwise to escalate the situation and risk creating an altercation in front of my son, not to mention anger someone who would then have several minutes alone with my unattended car to do as they pleased. So, I just gave her a quizzical look ("Really? REALLY?") until she averted her gaze back downward to her phone.

With that said, I don't think she was wrong to wonder why the dumbass in front of her appeared to be ignorantly backing into her car (and with his hands not even on the wheel?!  ). Not only is self-parking technology new and unfamiliar to many people, but also:

There's no obvious indication that the car's computer is in control, rather than the human (unless you can see the wheel turning by itself).
What the computer considers to be a "safe" buffer space between vehicles is an order of magnitude smaller than what humans perceive to be "safe".
Tesla's implementation in particular seems to use every last centimeter available within a parallel space, even when it is not needed, which seems completely illogical to any human observers (and scary if said human observers own either of the boundary vehicles... or the self-parking Tesla itself).
To help alleviate these human concerns, it would be nice if there were a way to control the size of Auto Park's buffer space, similar to TACC following distance and Summon spatial tolerances. Tesla could implement this setting independent of the minimum length required for a viable parallel space (i.e. buffer space would automatically shrink in a tight parallel space), or grow the minimum length along with the buffer space. That way, Auto Park could be made to behave in a "more human" fashion, if desired.


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## Bibs (Jun 9, 2018)

Bokonon said:


> Related question... Self parking: do other people trust it?


Tesla isn't the first company to offer parking assist... does anyone know if its implementation is more "aggressive" than others' in terms of how close it gets to surrounding obstacles?


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## Jarettp (Dec 1, 2018)

Bibs said:


> Tesla isn't the first company to offer parking assist... does anyone know if its implementation is more "aggressive" than others' in terms of how close it gets to surrounding obstacles?


Most other implementations of this don't have the car controlling the brake and accelerator. My Ford Explorer just controlled the wheel.


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## Silver Streak 3 (Apr 3, 2018)

masto said:


> I've had my Model 3 for about a month and it's been fun driving it and also showing it off to people. One of the first rides with a friend was to pick something up at the mall where they happened to have a lot of partially filled low-traffic parking lots in the back. We were excited to try out the self parking feature. Although I've had this on other cars, and I've had occasion maybe once in 10 years to want to use it, I'm still interested in the technology and Tesla's implementation is a lot more ambitious than the one in my 2008 Prius.
> 
> So, backing in: on the first try it worked perfectly. Backed in, then pulled forward to straighten out and center in the space, straight back and stopped. Very impressive. But after that, I was unable to get it to work. When I say unable, I mean I'd drive slowly past a spot, wait for the P symbol to appear, switch into reverse, press the button, let off the brake, and watch the car steer straight toward the rear corner of an adjacent vehicle to the point where we were both convinced there was going to be a collision and I'd hit the brake to abort. Tried 3 or 4 times in different spots, letting it inch closer each time before giving up. I was not willing to run the experiment to completion for fear of damaging mine and someone else's car.
> 
> ...


I use self park all the time. Just for fun! Both perpendicular and parallel work great.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Jarettp said:


> Most other implementations of this don't have the car controlling the brake and accelerator. My Ford Explorer just controlled the wheel.


This was my problem, it aborted on me the first time or two because I was expecting to operate the brake and accelerator (like I did in the Fusion) and when I did the 3 aborted.


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## c2c (Sep 19, 2017)

Be nice to know when the P is likely to display. What is the target area? 1, 2, 3, or 4 feet from the parked car? How far past the open slot should the rear bumper be to get the P? How tight can a perpendicular slot be before it is too tight? Is ambient lighting a factor?
It seems very random to me.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

c2c said:


> Be nice to know when the P is likely to display. What is the target area? 1, 2, 3, or 4 feet from the parked car? How far past the open slot should the rear bumper be to get the P? How tight can a perpendicular slot be before it is too tight? Is ambient lighting a factor?
> It seems very random to me.


I don't disagree it seems random, but it does look for a parking place between other vehicles for guides. Regardless of the criteria as we use it more and more (when given the opportunity) I think it will continue to improve. And.... You may be on to something about the ambient ligting!


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

c2c said:


> Be nice to know when the P is likely to display. What is the target area? 1, 2, 3, or 4 feet from the parked car? How far past the open slot should the rear bumper be to get the P? How tight can a perpendicular slot be before it is too tight? Is ambient lighting a factor?
> It seems very random to me.


It's been super reliable in urban environments (I fail quite a bit when trying to show it off in the suburbs), showing up as I am preparing to do the parking myself. I sometimes don't even notice Autopark is an option until I'm in reverse and possibly already backing up.


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## Jet2Red (Mar 22, 2019)

One thing is for sure I always keep my hands on the wheel. The feeling of a computer doing everything for me is still alien.


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