WOW! 'Remote Park Assist' by BMW Parks Cars at the Push of a Button - VIDEO ENHANCED STORY

MUNICH - July 12, 2006: BMW has developed a system that parks a car in the garage at the push of a button on a remote control. The system will be available to BMW drivers within three years.

CLICK HERE to see Remote Park Assist pull a vehicle safely into a garage.

CLICK HERE to watch the vehicle back out of a garage, and to see how it reacts when faced with some interference.

Prof. Raymond Freymann, Head of Research and Technology BMW Group, explains how the system works:

"The fully automatic garage parking assistant is a vehicle system which enables a vehicle to drive into a garage fully automatically. In order to enable this, we of course have to know where the vehicle is positioned relative to the garage. To this end, there is a camera mounted on the windscreen pointing ahead at the garage. On the back wall of the garage we attach a so-called “lenticular reflector”. This lenticular reflector gives us two pieces of information: firstly the distance of the vehicle from the back wall. If the camera sees the reflector in small size, this means it is a long way. If the camera sees the reflector in large size, this simply means that the vehicle is near the wall. Secondly you have a very clear view of the angle at which the camera is pointing at the reflector since there is a black line moving backwards and forwards. So you have two pieces of information – the size of the reflector and the angle relative to the back wall. Now the position of the vehicle is known and I can define the trajectories for the vehicle to move completely automatically into the garage. This is essentially the sensor system we have installed for the Automatic Park Assistant. Of course, what else do I need to control the whole operation? It has to be possible to control the engine and transmission electronically, I have to be able to operate the brake electronically from the vehicle and of course the accelerator too. But that’s all the systems I need so as to be able to have the vehicle drive into the garage completely automatically."