Can The Intelligent Parking Assist Damage The Car?

I haven't even tried mine so I'm looking forward to this thread.

 

Never had that happen. It does look dangerously close to the car in front of you while parallel parking, but that's only because you can't see much of the nose. People frequently misjudge how much space they actually have in front of the nose for this reason. If you have green lines, trust the system.

It has never curbed my rims either, but you don't need to be that paranoid about scuffing up the rims in any case as the stock 17" tires have the raised rim protectors.

 

It certainly could damage the car, which is why you have to operate the brake. If something looks too close, feel free to stop the car. It's probably more likely to get too close to something if it's unevenly loaded (so the car is at an angle, either front-to-back or side-to-side, so the camera isn't fairly level), or if the road suddenly angles up or down, or if the road surface is uneven (eg it gets much lower or higher on the side than normal). That said, there's probably some tolerance built into the system for these possibilities, which is probably one reason why the car requires such a huge space for the APGS to fit into.

You can use the little flag to judge where the car thinks your front bumper will swing in. If the flag is very close to the front car, you can move the parking space back a bit to give you some more room. If it's over the bumper of the other car, it will probably show you a red box.

The bottom line is, it's just an assist mechanism - you still have the ultimate control over the car. Set the system to put the car exactly where you want it, but if you think it's about to hit the curb or another vehicle, stop the car and cancel the guidance (or turn the steering wheel, which I believe will also cancel the system).

 

There are already disclaimers regarding these in the manual and common sense dictates you don't use IPA in such situations. The system is highly unlikely to screw up when parking in a normal space on a flat level road.

 

Hate to burst your bubble, but I've damaged three 17" rims without hurting the "raised rim protectors" on the tires. I've learned to be very carefull, considering the cost of rim repair!

 

Of course, I already know if you hit the curb at a great enough speed the rim protector will bend and not be able to protect from damage. They are meant to protect against minor oversights of a normally careful driver (and the IPA system if it happens to park too close to the curb). If you've managed to damage three 17" rims, you weren't a particularly careful driver and had to learn to be more conscious.

 

I have found the IPA to be more of a nuisance than just parallel parking myself. The first step requires pulling into traffic more than I do parking without IPA and the display distracts my attention when I should be looking at traffic and behind the car. I really like the LKA and the radar CC, but am not a fan of IPA.

 

Never hit the curb (or anything else) when I've used the IPA. The default seems to work fine for me most of the time for parallel parking. Backing in frequently requires the target position to be adjusted.

 

Never damaged mine.

 

The problem I have is all the cars behind me trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing.

 

Skip the pre-support system and it'll go much faster. The only thing slowing you down compared to parking manually would be the speed you can pull into the space.

 

My problem is finding a spot to try it out. I live in an old gold mining town where street parking is the norm. I end up parking it myself because the cars behind me intimidate me. I don't want to hold everyone up while I get through the learning curve of this technology.

 

Practice on an empty parking lot or even out in the open. The system will still trace the lines and work.

 

Re: Can The Intelligent Parking Assist Damage The Car?

IPA can be a groovy thing to play with for some folks, but if you RELY on it to park your car for you, and your 17s get curb rash....I don't think it's Toyota's fault.
Back in the stone age when I got my driver's license, you had to prove that you could parallel park a car before they gave you your driver's license---something that I demonstrate in my car almost daily.
My company has a mandatory 3 day suspension policy (to begin with) if you ding a company car, so I have a pretty good incentive to park my own car---albeit one equipped without IPA...

 

ETC, isn't there a thread bashing V owners that you have to post in?? Yes, we ALL had the same driver's test...and...we all passed it...so, you're not the only one who had to pass that test! Geez! Get over yourself!

Dude, be happy with what you have and stop bashing the upper level Prius owners out of jealousy! It is just sad...and pathetic.

 

I had the opportunity to use the IPA Thursday & didn't even think to take it. It took me a good bit of time to get into the space, and, yes, parallel parking was part of the test 34 years ago.