Mitsubishi Outlander: Sensors and sensibility

HIGH-TECH: Company behind hybrid that can park itself

Mitsubishi has developed an Outlander plug-in hybrid that can park itself autonomously, even without the driver being behind the wheel.

The system uses 12 ultrasonic sensors positioned around the vehicle to look for and measure the size of a potential parallel parking spot. When it detects a spot with enough room for the PHEV, it alerts the driver.

The driver then stops and exits the vehicle. Now, pushing the “park” button on the key fob sees the Outlander back up into the parking spot, sans driver.

In the demonstration, the gap between the two vehicles was tight enough that many would pass it by and look for something larger. But for the smart car, it was no problem.

Everything needed to park the car, including controlling the steering and brakes, and shifting between drive and reverse as needed, is done by the car once the parking process is initiated.

For safety reasons, there was someone behind the wheel during the demonstration, but he did nothing other than ensure everything was going as planned. The process is a little slow, but it proved to be millimetre-precise. The system also has the ability to pull the car out of the parking spot when it’s time to leave. The driver then gets in and takes control.

It was a simple but effective way of demonstrating how to park tomorrow’s car.