Parallel Parking Dread is Over!

One of the dreaded tasks while driving is the infamous parallel parking. Drivers have to pass the task to get their licenses and it seems to be the most feared chore for inexperienced drivers. What if the driver did not have to parallel park at all, but rather control only the foot brake pedal? Toyota has come out with technology where the car will virtually park itself.
While this technology was largely introduced by Lexus, a Toyota made company, Toyota is starting to put this option I some of their less expensive vehicles. One in particular that everyone is familiar with is the Toyota Prius. Not only does this hybrid get good gas mileage, it could possibly park itself.
The way the parking assist works is when the driver pulls next to a spot he or she wants to park in and puts the car into reverse, a rear bumper camera turns on and displays all that is behind the car. The driver then pushes a button on the dash and the car calculates how much it needs to turn in order to fit in the parking space. A green area appears on the screen telling the driver where the vehicle will end up and a yellow path describes how the car will get there. Then it is just a matter of controlling the car with the brake.
There are some flaws in this feature though. It does not tell you if the spot the driver is trying to back into is too small for the car to fit. This could lead to some major problems and may actually make parallel parking more of a pain if the driver can only rely on the computer to park. The only thing that scares me is if my car is the one sitting behind where this computer savvy vehicle is trying to park.

Parents Love MyKey

There has always been a struggle throughout the course of history between the snotty teenagers who thinks he or she knows it all and the older, so called wiser parents. It is only natural for the teenager to ask for independence through the high school years and especially when the independence turns into reality when they obtain their licenses. The more teenagers try to separate themselves from their parents as they mature into adulthood, it seems as though parents want to keep a tab on their children and make sure they are making the right decisions even more. Even though they cannot be there when their children head out onto the roads, there are still ways for the parents to feel secure and have reassurance that they will be safe on the road even when they aren’t riding shotgun. With Ford’s brand new MyKey technology it makes it simple for the parents to make the car as safe as possible for the children.

The MyKey has many features that will allow the parents to feel better about letting their children drive away alone. This feature will come standard in the all new 2010 Ford Focus Coupe and will have many more features than previous child monitoring systems. The system is based around the key to the car. It can allow parents to limit the speed of the car to just 80 mph, and will allow the stereo to only be turned on to 44% of the total volume. Also, if the children are not buckled up in the car, the car alerts the driver with chimes. Not only does it producing these annoying sounds to buckle up, it will mute the cars stereo until everyone in the car is wearing their seat belts. This is not all the key can do. It will also give the driver an early warning on how much fuel is left and alerts the driver when there is only 75 miles left on the tank of gas. The key can also be programmed to chime at certain speed levels to make sure that the novice driver pays attention to the speed he or she is going.

This technology sounds great on paper and will surely help those who need assistance when driving, but in my car these features would become a nuisance and would eventually be cut out. A way around this is to educate the drivers even more, and don’t hand out driver’s licenses to just anyone. They must fit a strict set of requirements in order to obtain their privilege to drive.

Cool Your Seat!

Perhaps one of my favorite car innovations is temperature controlled seats. We’ve all been there, on a hot summer day and the leather seats are scolding hot. Or in the dead of winter, sitting in your car literally freezing your bum off! But then, some genius thought outside the box.
Someone took car comfort to the next level and now we can control if are seat are heated or cooled. No more uncomfortably hot or cold seats. You know how that power at your finger tips.

In most new cars this technology is preinstalled before you even get it, but what about everyone else? I kind of want that sort of luxury in my car so I got to doing some research and found some reasonable prices for this. I found that a good price is $119.95. Unfortunately though, if you want your car to keep its stock appearance you’ll have to pay a tad bit more. The price for the $119.95 is just a seat cover that comes with the coolness and hotness.

I for one wish I had this in my car. I hate going into my car in winter and sitting on a cold seat; it would be one hundred times better if I got to sit on a warm cozy seat! Or in the summer it would be nice to have a colder seat that way my back doesn’t stick to the seat. I think I may have to put this item on my Christmas list!!!