Self-parking cars have been around for quite some time now. What seemed like an option that would be available only on premium cars at first is now a commodity you can get even on budget vehicles these days. BMW Park Assist has also been around for a while and has changed accordingly. The very first versions only featured a system that would parallel park a car without you doing all of the work.
Back then, however, you still had a couple of things to do while the car was parking itself. You had to press the brake and switch between Drive and Reverse. Nowadays that’s no longer needed, as the car will do everything all on its own. BMW went even a step further and is now also offering a Reversing Assistant, which can back up alone, to get you out of a tight spot.
However, that’s not what we’re here to discuss.
The BMW Park Assist system now also has a feature that gets you out of a parking spot. I know what you’re thinking: I can get myself out anyway. That’s completely understandable. You can probably also park your car by yourself and probably don’t like waiting for the car to do it. However, not everyone is so well versed in the skill that is driving. Some might find these features actually useful and thus might even give them a chance every once in a while.
As you can see in the video below, in order to get your car automatically out of a parking spot, you need to press the Park Assistant button or simply engage reverse. Once the camera pops up on your iDrive screen you’ll have to press on the park assist button and then confirm the direction in which you are heading.
Next, the car will then align you with the road, but not pull up onto it. Thus, once no more steering intervention is needed, you can set off. The way I see this system as being useful is when your space is terribly narrow and you need to make 100 steering adjustments to be able to get out. This way, the car will do all the legwork for you and you only need to press the gas pedal at the end.
