And for Ford’s next trick, it’ll have your car park itself!

By Nick Jaynes October 10, 2013

and for fords next trick itll have your car park itself ford fully assisted parking aid 1 4 — Spot too small to get into? No worries, Ford has an app for that. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Parking in a tight spot is the bugbear, as Ford Europe calls it, of every driver. Soon, however, frustrating parking might be a thing of the past – at least in Fords.

As automakers unveil self-driving cars, they are also debuting self-parking cars.

Volvo recently demonstrated a car that would drop the driver off at a shop, go find a parking sport, park itself, and wait to be called back to the drop-off spot via the driver’s smartphone.

Now Ford has followed suit with the “Fully Assisted Parking Aid.” Just like Volvo, the Ford system will park itself, without the driver inside the car. Unlike Volvo, however, the Ford won’t drop you off and go about finding its own spot.

As you can see in the video below, Fully Assisted Parking Aid will identify a spot, let the driver out, and complete the parking job alone. While the car is capable of parking itself without input, as it can control throttle, brake, steering, and transmission gears on its own, the driver must still activate the system with a remote control.

While Fully Assisted Parking Aid is only in prototype stages at this point, according to Car Scoops. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, to see a production version ready for 2017. Most Fords can already parallel park themselves, with the driver selecting transmission gears and operating the brake and throttle. So sending self-parking cars into the market isn’t a huge stretch.

We recently played around with a self-parallel parking Ford and absolutely loved it. It is rather strange, though, to watch the steering wheel whip around by itself. Watching your car park, I suspect, will be even more peculiar.

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Nick Jaynes is the Automotive Editor for Digital Trends. He developed a passion for writing about cars working his way…

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