Volkswagen is onto something great with this concept demo. You just step out of this car and it parks itself. Great, now they just need to iron out those details about detecting obstacles like lil' ol' grannies crossing parking lots.
Self-parking cars aren't really a new idea, but with the design the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory is working on, only minimal modifications are required a vehicle's stock options. The main sensor systems consist of a camera mounted on the rear view mirror, a front radar, and 'couple little off the shelf LIDAR units mounted on the sides.' They'll need to make a few more modification to take care of the system's inability to detect obstacles (be it people or terrain), but other than that tiny detail, this is the best autonomous parking prototype I've seen so far. [Gizmodo via BotJunkie]
