A few years ago I saw a video of a Volkswagen parking on its own. I was intrigued but brushed it off as something unreal. Maybe they have this idea to make a self parking vehicle and they are sharing that idea. They should do it since there are companies trying to make self driving cars such as Google.

Then one day I popped into a Mercedes Benz dealership and test drove an E class. The salesperson sat in the car with me, told me where to go, what features to turn on and off, and it was not bad. The not bad part stopped when he told me to look for an empty side parking bay that was on a busy main road and try out the self parking feature. I was like, “what?” Seriously? Amazed at this, I did as I was told. The car steering wheel started to turn on its own in different directions and then a beep. Nope, we were not parked yet. Tried again; the car did the same thing and then another beep. Not parked yet.

At this juncture the cars behind started honking. “Ignore them and try again” said the salesman. Easy for him to say. He was not the one behind the wheel. On the third try the darn thing parked itself in the lot. Three tries may be quite rubbish as I could have done it in one go, and if the guy in the car behind me was a road bully, I will have a hard time explaining to the police officer why I had to beat him up, roll him over, and kick him in the crotch as if trying to score a goal midfield. As crappy as that experience was, the darn machine did park itself (I had to handle the brakes) and that is a good feat. Technology in car parking ability has reached a new high.