[LexxM3]

New owner here, just picked up yesterday. What is the net sum of the available PDC functionalities? I understand the parallel parking thing and thought that was it. But the dealer "genius" (or whatever they are called in Canada) said it also does reverse, back in parking. I asked twice, but it is possible she had no idea what the term "parallel parking" means :-).

I am just ramping up on it first, haven't had the guts to try any of it yet.

[nosnoop]

Parking Assistance is able to do automatic parallel parking, perpendicular parking and diagonal parking. In some countries, it is able to drive out of parallel parking, not sure if this function is enabled in Canada.

PDC, park distance control, refers to the signal and tones and display of surrounding obstacles while parking.

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by nosnoop

Parking Assistance is able to do automatic parallel parking, perpendicular parking and diagonal parking. In some countries, it is able to drive out of parallel parking, not sure if this function is enabled in Canada.

PDC, park distance control, refers to the signal and tones and display of surrounding obstacles while parking.

That's very helpful and thank you for the clarification to precision, that's very important! So focusing on PA then ... perpendicular parking ... backwards or forward or both? I assume diagonal is always forward, correct?

[russelldav]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

That's very helpful and thank you for the clarification to precision, that's very important! So focusing on PA then ... perpendicular parking ... backwards or forward or both? I assume diagonal is always forward, correct?

Just press the Parking button next to the shifter and the car will start to look for a spot. It will ding when it finds one and show you on the screen - you stop, select it and then it takes over.

Worthwhile testing. It can squeeze in to some pretty tight spots.

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by russelldav

Just press the Parking button next to the shifter and the car will start to look for a spot. It will ding when it finds one and show you on the screen - you stop, select it and then it takes over.

Worthwhile testing. It can squeeze in to some pretty tight spots.

Thanks. So far, I did try for the perpendicular parking job in an empty parking lot and it did not seem to work — car didn't recognize any spots. Hence the questions here. It could be the potentially worn out parking lines or user error.

[russelldav]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

Thanks. So far, I did try for the perpendicular parking job in an empty parking lot and it did not seem to work — car didn't recognize any spots. Hence the questions here. It could be the potentially worn out parking lines or user error.

Were you crawling past parked cars or was it an empty lot?

[LexxM3]

Empty lot.

[TSMC55]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

Empty lot.

I have the same issue. Mine recognises spots for a reverse park (which is Australian for what I think you might call a parallel park (parked parallel to the curb facing in the direction of travel)) but it does not recognise a "back end in" parking spot (rear end against the curb).

There is a youtube vid of a US dealer demonstrating both so clearly the function is available in some locations.

It is a little scary how fast goes when it does the reverse park!

[russelldav]

Originally Posted by TSMC55

I have the same issue. Mine recognises spots for a reverse park (which is Australian for what I think you might call a parallel park (parked parallel to the curb facing in the direction of travel)) but it does not recognise a "back end in" parking spot (rear end against the curb).

There is a youtube vid of a US dealer demonstrating both so clearly the function is available in some locations.

It is a little scary how fast goes when it does the reverse park!

I've successfully done both a parallel and reverse bay park (in Canada) but in both instances there were other vehicles around. I'm not certain if the system is able to detect the white lines of an empty lot? Did you have the Parking function ON and were you crawling along the row?

[TurtleBoy]

I think you need to have other cars around for it to find a spot. I have already used it to park between cars and it did a great job. Actually this week I was going to test if I can get it to park in front of a car when there is a huge empty space in front of it, if that makes sense.

[dream54ing]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

Thanks. So far, I did try for the perpendicular parking job in an empty parking lot and it did not seem to work — car didn't recognize any spots. Hence the questions here. It could be the potentially worn out parking lines or user error.

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

I think you need to have other cars around for it to find a spot. I have already used it to park between cars and it did a great job. Actually this week I was going to test if I can get it to park in front of a car when there is a huge empty space in front of it, if that makes sense.

Yes, it's sensors uses other cars to determine the empty spots available, not lines. the parking job will depends how the other two parked cars. if they did a shitty parking job, your car will center between the two cars, making your car offset from the lines

Originally Posted by TSMC55

I have the same issue. Mine recognises spots for a reverse park (which is Australian for what I think you might call a parallel park (parked parallel to the curb facing in the direction of travel)) but it does not recognise a "back end in" parking spot (rear end against the curb).

There is a youtube vid of a US dealer demonstrating both so clearly the function is available in some locations.

It is a little scary how fast goes when it does the reverse park!

Our genius tested with our car when we picked up and it was super fast in reverse perpendicular parking and parallel parking. It was nerve wrecking, but works well. We still haven't tried it because too scared to, lol

[samvora]

I took delivery of my X5 40i yesterday and tried out both the Parallel park and perpendicular parking feature - I also tried the backup assistant feature ( more on that in a minute).

Yes, it does both exceptionally well and quickly also. Yes, you need to have at least 1 car for it to be able to detect a spot in front/behind it or next to it. If you need to use this feature in an empty lot or in a section where there are no cars then you need to go to a driving school for a test right away - i assume that is the logic that the engineers at BMW also used lol!!!

What was new to me or unknown to me was the backup assistant feature - it basically follows your track back to the point where you started the car from up to a certain extent. It won't back up the car all the way to your house from your work if it is more than 1 mile of a distance hahahaha. I thought that was a pretty cool feature for example if you are at a cul-de-sac and try to maneuver it into a spot and then can't get out of or need to reverse back to the larger street from a cul-de-sac if you can't turn around.

[dream54ing]

Originally Posted by samvora

If you need to use this feature in an empty lot or in a section where there are no cars then you need to go to a driving school for a test right away - i assume that is the logic that the engineers at BMW also used lol!!!

:

[LexxM3]

Well, I somehow managed to fool the system to park in a somewhat empty lot. This was my very first real attempt at reverse automatic parking. The result is a bit underwhelming. Pros are that it did park and didn't hit anything. Con is that the car itself earned the classic "BMW Driver" cliche.

[maczrool]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

Well, I somehow managed to fool the system to park in a somewhat empty lot. This was my very first real attempt at reverse automatic parking. The result is a bit underwhelming. Pros are that it did park and didn't hit anything. Con is that the car itself earned the classic "BMW Driver" cliche.

That is the exact situation I am trying to park in, but thus far it refuses to identify it as a spot at least without other cars around.

I park in an open air lot which gets very congested at times so there is no way not to end up parked next to someone. Unfortunately, even working with professionals who mostly drive nice vehicles, my previous ride had its doors bashed on several occasions. The people here simply do not respect other people’s property. I come in pretty early so I mostly have my pick of spots. So I have changed parking spots so that I am only getting parked next to on one side. The exposed side has a light pole that serves to keep other cars a fairly safe distance. The only problem with that is the landscapers come through Mondays and blow dust and clippings all over whatever is parked next to the islands and certainly leaves open the possibility of lawn equipment making contact with that side of the vehicle.

I did get it to perpendicular park once with the genius in the car but that was in between two cars and it worked well in that situation. So how did you convince it that was a parking place? Did it show you the P symbol on the screen and have you been able to do it again?

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by maczrool

That is the exact situation I am trying to park in, but thus far it refuses to identify it as a spot at least without other cars around.

I park in an open air lot which gets very congested at times so there is no way not to end up parked next to someone. Unfortunately, even working with professionals who mostly drive nice vehicles, my previous ride had its doors bashed on several occasions. The people here simply do not respect other people’s property. I come in pretty early so I mostly have my pick of spots. So I have changed parking spots so that I am only getting parked next to on one side. The exposed side has a light pole that serves to keep other cars a fairly safe distance. The only problem with that is the landscapers come through Mondays and blow dust and clippings all over whatever is parked next to the islands and certainly leaves open the possibility of lawn equipment making contact with that side of the vehicle.

I did get it to perpendicular park once with the genius in the car but that was in between two cars and it worked well in that situation. So how did you convince it that was a parking place? Did it show you the P symbol on the screen and have you been able to do it again?

I believe it behaves as a purely radar/proximity sensor based system, not camera based parking spot recognition. I guess they assume that you would only use it in a relatively tight spot between cars.

Perhaps the cameras are used to assist but when I have used it myself it behaved much more like it was not basing anything on the cameras. It did a good job of placing the car at an equal distance between the cars I was parking between regardless of where the painted lines were. I have used it for both parallel and perpendicular spots and it has worked fine.

[maczrool]

I guess it’s worth parking manually to avoid the apathetic assholes’ car doors.

[amphiprion]

Both automated perpendicular and parallel parking have worked well in my testing. Have not been able to test diagonal parking however... and there is a caveat to this in p. 252 of the manual:

General information
The functions parking diagonally to the road,
driving out of parallel parking spaces and driving
Driver assistance systems out in reverse may not
be available. Contact your authorized dealer’s

It is nerve-racking the first few times, especially since it is a full hands and foot-free operation. But like the stop & go cruise control you get used to it and begin to feel more confident in the system.

Be careful that when you do use it, if you hit the brakes while it's doing its thing it will cancel the automated parking and you're back in charge. At which point, don't expect it to save you from hitting things after you let off the brakes.