The Car That Parks Itself

The all-new 2006 Lexus LS has been getting a lot of attention lately. I'm sure most people have seen the TV commercial or the printed ad, but most have probably heard of this car by word of mouth. While the bland styling of this particular Lexus will confuse most consumers with the latest offerings from every other automobile manufacturer, this model Lexus features automated parallel parking technology. It's a feature that is currently exclusive to Lexus. It's also a feature that is unnecessary and reconfirms my belief that people should learn how to drive (and PARK) before getting their licenses.

With the MSRP starting at $61,000 for a standard LS , I highly doubt the upper level executive who is driving this car is going to 1) need to pay for a parking spot 2) opt for the $5.00 parallel parking spot over the security and comfort of the $20.00 stall in the parking garage. That is unless the driver is an extremely pompous ass who wants to show off the parallel parking feature of his car.

Maybe the reason I'm so bitter is because it makes parallel parking accessible to more people. Parallel parking is an art in itself--the less number of turns of the steering wheel and the less number of bumper checks separating the Van Gough's from Warhol's. It's a technical skill that is reminiscant of tuning a TV station in with rabbit ears or making a phone call with a rotary phone. Parallel parking used to be about the driver becoming one with the car and one with the road and its surroundings. Unfortunately parallel parking, like everything else in the world, has become a push-button experience.