Ford Debuts Automatic Unpark Feature

Ford Motor Co. is expanding the capabilities of its automated parallel parking system to include automatic extraction from a parking space.

The company says the idea sprang out of customer feedback about drivers having trouble getting out of tight parking spaces the automated system was able to put their cars into.

The updated system will debut in March in the 2015 Ford Edge. Ford has been demonstrating the feature, which will be packaged with lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control functions, this week at the Intelligent Transportation Society's World Congress in Detroit.

Like the current system, the unpark feature uses sensors to locate the vehicle and calculate steering angles. The car operates the steering automatically, but the driver remains responsible for accelerator and brake functions. The new system also will be able to park a car in a perpendicular spot, according to Ford.