WP: Look, Ma, No Hands: The car that parks itself

[DeepModem Mom]

Look, Ma, No Hands
By Warren Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 15, 2006; Page D01


The LS 460 L has two remotes: One operates an entertainment system while the other works the massage seats. (By Koichi Kamoshida -- Getty Images)

Letting go is difficult, especially letting go of the steering wheel. I'm not accustomed to it. I don't like it. I didn't want to do it. But I did, thanks to Toyota Motor Corp.'s advanced parking guidance system.

I felt I was being conned, and I was. When it comes to marketing, nobody beats Toyota. And the fancy automatic parking system, a $700 option installed in one of its luxury Lexus cars, is a work of marketing genius.

Let me be blunt: The automatic parking system in the 2007 Lexus LS 460 L sedan is completely unnecessary. I do not make that claim as a Luddite. I love technology. But this self-parking system is an automotive bauble if ever there was one.

Anyone who drives tens of thousands of miles annually and who parks odd cars in weird places all over the world, which is what I do, does not need a self-parking system. My assistant, Ria Manglapus, did not need it. It took the LS 460 L nearly 60 seconds to park itself. Ria did it in 40 seconds.

But there's the rub, the consumer trap, the tangible example of Toyota's indisputable marketing savvy....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121401698.html