Volkswagen’s Park Assist Competes Against A Stunt Driver

Self-parking systems have become increasingly commonplace across the automotive industry in recent years and this clip shows the Park Assist function of the VW Crafter in action.

To put Park Assist to the test, Volkswagen recruited the help of stunt driver Alastair Moffat who was tasked with doing a handbrake turn in the van into a space while in a separate parking attempt, he let the Park Assist program do the work of performing a perfect parallel park.

While the YouTube video is titled Stunt driver vs. Park Assist, it’s not really a fair race between the two as Moffat first needs to get a run-up in the Crafter to build enough speed to do a handbrake turn into the 7.5 meter-long (24.6 feet) space. While the Crafter itself is absolutely massive at 5.9 meters (19.3 feet) long, Moffat is able to slide it into the space with little difficulty.

Using Park Assist and doing a parallel park is far less time-consuming. All you have to do is enable the system, drive alongside a row of cars and the system will detect if there’s an available space. The system then controls the steering while the driver is left in charge of the accelerator and brake. If driving a manually-equipped VW, drivers also need to control the clutch pedal.

Had Moffat been tasked with simply doing his own parallel park quicker than Park Assist can, we’ve got little doubt he could have made it happen.