Consumers leery of self-parking features

Consumers leery of self-parking features

As automakers increasingly integrate self-parking features into new vehicles, consumers say they are not ready to give up control. A new AAA survey found that nearly 80 percent of American drivers are confident in their parallel parking abilities and only one in four would trust this technology to park their vehicle.

But AAA testing found that self-parking technology outperformed manual parallel parking in four areas: fewer curb strikes, fewer maneuvers, greater speed and greater closeness to the curb.

–While Americans report feeling confident in their parallel parking abilities, this technology proves there is room for improvement,” said Megan McKernan, manager of the Automobile Club of Southern Californiaês Automotive Research Center.

One caveat: AAA found that some systems parked the vehicles extremely close to the curb, leaving wheel and tires vulnerable to scratches and repairs.