Corolla Touring Sport - faulty intelligent parking.

[Peter_T]

Car (MY22) arrived new on Jan 27 after being ordered last March and appearing 2 months earlier than a succession of forecasts, which were all 'late Jan/early Feb'. After experience using same type of system on Skoda Octavia, disappointing to find auto parking a rather frustrating experience.

It is awkward finding where the car has to be before pushing the button, and once it has decided that a parallel spot is too small, it forgets that you still want to park - the Skoda could cope with that and kept checking the gap sizes until it found one large enough. And this was a 2018 Skoda, so you would hope that 4 years later, the software would be superior - though I suppose Toyota would always claim to be superior to Skoda!

I managed to get it to start on a parking space by stopping with the left front corner just beyond the corner on the second vehicle - it did not work until I had reached that point. Once I had got it to start reversing into the space, it always got the angle wrong, so even with repeated forward movements, it finishes up at about 20 degrees to the centre line, having applied insufficient turn. I had fewer chances to try parallel parking, but that was a disaster as well - not to mention the inevitable hold-up behind me, which renders swift efficient operation essential.

The first technician that I saw, in the local main dealer, insisted that there could be no fault with the sensors that was not reported on the display - and there is no error message. He stated that the sensor interface is very intelligent, so any fault would be detected and reported. He gave the impression that he did not believe my account, slightly implying that the system was not that good - to the extent that he does not use it on his Toyota - though his wife thinks its is fine on hers! 

In the end, a quite young guy took it out and declared that it was definitely faulty, though it was a pity he did not give me the chance to watch him using the system. He had put it into some kind of diagnostic mode, judging by the messages I got when I took the car away. They have referred the fault to Toyota dealer support, with no response yet (after 3 working days). 

Reading other posts on faults with this, it may be that it is a software fault, and I suppose even with perfect sensors, the steering actuator may not be producing the correct angle of turn - though I would expect the feedback system could have coped with that. The sensors seem to be working OK the rest of the time.

Watch this space!

Peter

[flash22]

More than likely a calibration issue, Don't hold your breath waiting on Toyota it will be some time

[Cyker]

How good is the self-parking on Toyotas? I'm generally quite skeptical  that any auto-parking system would work in a typical London street space...!

 

[Obsidian Estate]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

How good is the self-parking on Toyotas? I'm generally quite skeptical  that any auto-parking system would work in a typical London street space...!

 

I've never even touched the button in mine since I've had it. I find it easy enough to park without messing.

[Peter_T]

I recall in the early days of video recorders, it was reckoned that only about 20% of owners ever programmed them, so I wonder how many people actually use intelligent parking. 

I found it most useful in the dark when getting into a narrow designated car park space in a holiday complex, or indeed even in daylight to  get as centred as possible when the spaces are too small - which is so often the case. You do need to be confident with it if you are going to use if for parallel parking though, especially on a busy road- and it is useful because it will tell you when a gap is big enough.

I await to see how well the Toyota version works after they have fixed it.

[Trewithy]

 I have tried the self parking (parallel) system twice, just to see if it works.  It does work but on both occasions It finished up too far from the pavement for my liking, and I felt there was too much faffing about when I find it much easier to park it myself although the view out of the rear windows is not ideal.  I think that is pretty much the same with all modern cars

[Peter_T]

On 3/13/2023 at 5:27 PM, flash22 said:

More than likely a calibration issue, Don't hold your breath waiting on Toyota it will be some time

• They have responded quite quickly actually, getting back to me today.

[Peter_T]

11 minutes ago, Trewithy said:

 I have tried the self parking (parallel) system twice, just to see if it works.  It does work but on both occasions It finished up too far from the pavement for my liking, and I felt there was too much faffing about when I find it much easier to park it myself although the view out of the rear windows is not ideal.  I think that is pretty much the same with all modern cars

The Skoda did park well. The distance from the pavement is perhaps related to how far the car in front is from the pavement.

[AndrueC]

On 3/13/2023 at 6:10 PM, Cyker said:

How good is the self-parking on Toyotas? I'm generally quite skeptical  that any auto-parking system would work in a typical London street space...!

It's mostly okay but not perfect. It doesn't aim for any particular position just 'don't hit anything'. Thus it can leave you too far to one side with looks poor and can result in insufficient space on one side to get out.

It's useful as a first attempt to get you out of the way of waiting vehicles but once it's finished it's usually necessary to adjust the car to meet my standards.

Most of the time I'd rather just park myself.

I think these systems are really just executing a pre-programmed manoeuvre so where you end up is probably always the same relative to where you started. If you can work out the best place to start relative to your intended space the results are probably quite good but then if you can work that out you might as well do the move yourself.

[tfc]

Tried it twice and failed both times, it's most likely me not setting it up correctly so won't be using it again.

[twintopp]

had it in three cars now and never tried it yet having had friends give their verdicts it sound easier to just park the old fashioned way,

[Peter_T]

On 3/18/2023 at 3:48 PM, Peter_T said:

• They have responded quite quickly actually, getting back to me today.

The car has been in three times since they agreed that it was faulty. The second time, sensors were changed, but I have not had confirmation that it had been tested, and it would not work for me immediately after collection.

Today it is being brought back after having a replacement ECU, with a video to prove that the parking is now working. It has been quite a saga, delayed by some time in hospital for me and a recent week's holiday. 

I appreciate that there is scepticism about the value of the feature, but in general, if something has cost me money (in the purchase price I mean - the fix has been under warranty, of course), I expect it to do what is says on the tin. It is however disappointing to see some of the criticism of the operation. I hope I do not find it so useless that it would have better to just ignore the fault.