Prius Intelligent Parking Assist (Ipa)

[Mike Dom]

I've just bought a 2009 G3 Prius TSpirit which has the rear camera, IPA switch and appears to have the sensors on the sides at the front but I cannot get the IPA to work, My questions is, do all TSpirits have IPA fitted or is it an optional extra ?

[Sooty]

I have the Gen 2 and IPA is fitted as standard.

Have you looked at the lower dash below the steering wheel on the left?

On mine there are 2 switches, 1 for IPA and one for EV mode.

Maybe others who have the Gen 3 will be able to give you a bit more info.

If you got the DVD when you bought the car, have a look or if not ask a local dealer if you can borrow one.

Hope this is of a little help.

[Opifex]

I don't have the manual with me and the car is locked up in the underground garage, so here goes from memory. For the IPA there is a physical switch below the left of the steering column and two buttons appear at the bottom of the screen when reverse is selected. Assuming all that is there I suspect your problem is not that the IPA isn't there but in actually using it.

To get it to work you have to follow the instructions in the manual to the letter. Even if you do everything right it is very twitchy and refuses to work at the least excuse. After having the Prius for about six months I decided I really should give it a serious try, so needed somewhere quiet to practice. As my garage is in the middle of a row I thought this was ideal as it was a similar situation to reverse parking in a car park and I wouldn't be in anyone's way. Most attempts nothing seemed to happen at all but eventually I managed to do everything in the right order. That time it still didn't work because it reckoned the garage was too narrow. The garage isn't over-generous but is quite a bit wider than most parking spaces. At that point I gave up.

Has anyone else had more success?

[Dave R.]

In what way doesn't IPA work?

Here are my potted instructions on how to use IPA..... (based on a 2009 Gen-3 T-Spirit)

Going by the book (and this sounds complicated, but when you get the hang of it, is quite simple really) you....

Pause just before the parking space.

Press the button on the dash under the steering-wheel for IPA - once to parallel park, twice to go into a parking bay.

Then drive forwards slowly, parallel to the curb, so that the sensors on the front bumper can measure the space.

When it goes ping, turn the steering wheel onto full lock (pointing the front of the car away from the space!) and continue forwards. This will put the car at about 45degress to the curb.

When it goes ping a second time, straighten up the wheel and put the car into reverse.

IPA should then show a box on the parking camera screen to indicate where the car will end up. Hopefully this will be between any white lines and in a parking space!

Let go of the steering wheel, ease off the brake and slowly reverse.

Wrinkles for this are:

1) Ideally you need a well marked, quite big parking space. As Opifex says, IPA won't put the car into a tiny gap. IPA uses image recognition to find the white lines that mark out the parking space.

2) It only works 5 times out of 10

3) it won't work if you are in a hurry!

4) If you are reversing into a well-marked space you can ignore the bit about letting the car measure the space - don't bother with the button under the steering wheel - just line up the car as though you are intending to reverse into it yourself, put into reverse, then touch the button at the bottom of the screen to select ipa - a target box should then appear on screen based on the car's best guess at where the space is (all on image-processing - so you need good white lines for the computer to see). You have touch-screen arrows to move the box around to the desired position. Once the target has been set, simply let go of the steering wheel and slowly reverse.

In 3 years (70,000 miles) I tended to give IPA a try if I knew it was a well-defined big space (just for the entertainment value of using it!). If the space was tight, I'd park the car myself. If IPA couldn't get the target right first time, then don't bother.

If anything, the guide lines on the reversing camera are far more useful - the curved lines that go diagonally from corner to corner show where the back of the car will go on full lock, whilst the straight lines show where it will go if you straighten up. I'm gutted to find that they don't appear on my new 2012 T-Spirit (OK so I didn't go for the Technology Pack - so no IPA this time)... so the rear camera is now not quite so useful :(

[Mike Dom]

Thanks for the help, I will give it a try.

[Bibsy]

I've never used it to parallel park (well, once, for fun), but that's because I've never actually had to parallel park...

However, for a "back into a space in a car park" scenario, I use it every day at my workplace, where it does a fine job. I'd miss it.

I understand the new Auris has an enhanced system that IPAs its way out of a space, as well as into it, taking account of obstacles on the other side of the road, or some such. Interesting.

[Jan&tone]

Like others, I used the IPA on my gen3 for entertainment value rather than anything else, it took so long to set up I simply didn't bother!

I understand has now been withdrawn from the Gen3 for just that reason.

[Bibsy]

Like others, I used the IPA on my gen3 for entertainment value rather than anything else, it took so long to set up I simply didn't bother!

I understand has now been withdrawn from the Gen3 for just that reason.

Not withdrawn - but now optional, as part of the Technology Pack.

[Mike Dom]

Yes I got it to work, but as others have said it far too fiddly to use. In future I'll just use to amuse and impress the Grandchildren.

Thanks to all who gave advice.

[don21]

I used it once or twice but it really is just a gimmick.

The reverse camera is all you really need and I now wonder how I managed without one.

[kithmo]

I've used the reverse into a bay bit quite a few times, but it only works on the flat, if the car park is sloped forget it.

I used the parallel intelligent park assist once and it cost me £30. I was so chuffed that it had parked itself perfectly parallel, 2" from the kerb, that I forgot to put money in the meter and got a ticket. I tried to tell the warden that I didn't park there, the car did, but he wouldn't listen. Damn car should be intelligent enough to pay the parking, or at least tell me to.