Asymmetrical Information

Yeah, but I bet it gets crappy mileage. :)

When we got to the parallel parking section of my driving test, I asked if the examiner could just mark down a zero and move on to the next part of the test. Not having improved much since then, I hail this step forward for humanity. But I feel your pain... boy, was I good at WordPerfect.

When Toyota sells a car that can find its own parking spot, count me in.

Intriguing, but we ARE talking a Toyota Prius -- it already has an enviable turning radius. When they invent a parking system for larger cars that simply centers the vehicle on the street parallel to the parking slot, then lowers four hydraulic perpendicular tires that lift the main wheels slightly off the ground, and then moves the car sideways into position...humanity will have been greatly blessed :)

Then, as a party bonus, the passenger-side lift tires could be activated to raise just that side of the car, and permit doors to open over high curbs without that horrible "crunch" sound...

Shouldn't it stand to reason that if you can't park a car, you ought not be driving one?

I like to think that a special circle of Hell has been reserved for the man who invented parallel parking.

Don't worry, Jane, the article only says it can back into spaces. It doesn't say it can parallel park, so your skill set is (apparently) still of value. Enjoy it while you can!

Buckminster Fuller made a car back in 1933 that had three wheels. The third wheel in back was used for steering. To parallel park, all the driver had to do was point the front end in the spot and the third wheel would just scootch the car in place. Quite an amazing car for the time all the way around.
check it out.
http://www.thirteen.org/bucky/car.html

My nephew had to get his Class 1 (or Class A) License for really big trucks so he drove a bottom dump (a really big truck) down to DMV and parked it in the big lot. When the inspector stepped out of the office and waved at him - he thought that she wanted him to park where she was standing and pulled off a perfect parallel job. She got in, said "I really only wanted to let you know that I would be right out, but now that you're here - You just passed - Let's go for a ride.

I trust there is an override. I am still cursing the idiot[s] who ensured that if one (electric, but opened by turning a key - stupidity started there) door lock got frozen NONE of the locks would function.

I recommend passing the parallel parking part of the driver's test by taking it in Garden City (Long Island) in the middle of the day. The examiner told me, "Park behind that car." Since it was the _only_ car on the street, I just pulled up behind it. And I passed.

Shouldn't it stand to reason that if you can't park a car, you ought not be driving one?

Actually, Mr. Lion, this represents progress. My grandmother once told me about going for a ride with a friend up into Connecticut (probably on Route 1/Boston Post Road). They wanted to stop for lunch, but the friend said "We have to find a parking space I can pull through, because I don't know how to back up yet." This was probably in the 1920s.

So, is neato mosquito more intense than neato torpedo or milder?

I would not be interested in a car which parks itself. What I have wanted for thirty five years, since the technology has existed that long, is a car with four wheel steering and a rearward proximity sensor.

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