VIDEO: Lego car parks itself better than Lexus for less than $250
After watching the hilarious video from the guys at Automobile trying to use the self-parking feature on the new Lexus LS460, this video is truly amazing. For a measly $249, the crew at Mindstorms NXT will sell you a complete kit to build an SPC (self-parking car) of your own.
The SPC will detect a space large enough to park, perform all steps necessary to successfully complete the often difficult task of parallel parking, and then with a verbal "GO!" pull out of the spot on to the road, only slightly tapping the "car" in front on the way out.
What a great way to entertain friends and family at the Christmas party this year; just be sure there aren't any LS460 drivers in the audience!
Thanks to David Yu for the tip!
[Source: Engadget via TechEBlog]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
kab 11:41AM (12/14/2006)
People thinking that parallel parking is difficult is a good indicator of how crappy American drivers have a tendency of being.
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Dave 11:54AM (12/14/2006)
Or it could just speak to the fact that more and more drivers live in rural and suburban areas. Lighten up Kab.
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Dan 11:55AM (12/14/2006)
Looks like "he" would have driven up on the curb when parking and then nailed that "car" in front when leaving.
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nailz420 12:01PM (12/14/2006)
It sure is better at bump parking. This car would feel right at home in New York.
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Bob 12:10PM (12/14/2006)
Wouldn't be a week at autoblog without some writer here complaining about the Lexus park feature. It's 10x as easy to use as that stupid BMW iDrive thing if we really want to get into complexity. Can we all just move on?
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Brian 12:19PM (12/14/2006)
The self-parking feature has been in Japan for a couple years now.
Since America sucks, it would be logical to assume that the Japanese use it for entertainment, while the Americans use it because they suck.
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UpIrons 12:19PM (12/14/2006)
"only slightly tapping the "car" in front on the way out."
How is this parking better than a Lexus if it bumps the "car" in front on the way out??
I have yet to see or hear of any Lexus cars with this feature causing accidents... Which does bring up another interesting point. Is Lexus going to be sued by insurance companies if their cars bump into other cars while "self parking"? Or is that why Lexus has made it so that the driver still has to be the one to use the brake?
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GrowUp 12:29PM (12/14/2006)
A bit of psychological projection there, huh, Brian?
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Johnny B 12:37PM (12/14/2006)
Hey kab(comment #1), you hit the nail on the head there...Most people in America don't know how to drive correctly...they just know how to operate the vehicle...! There is a major lack of common sense and hardly no driving skills among drivers in the U.S. and the younger they are the worse they are...!
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Leadersofthefreeworld 1:06PM (12/14/2006)
Yeah, you guys are right, the Japanese are know for thier great driving. What a joke - you ever drive around Flushing NY? Don't forget that they are the ones who invented this ridiculous feature in the 1st place -
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jeff 12:58PM (12/14/2006)
UpIrons, I wouldn't consider pulling out of a parking space part of the act of parking. If I recall correctly, Lexus doesn't pull out of the spot for you either. Sensor placement is actually the culprit of the bump on the way out. If wider angle sensors were used, the bump wouldn't have happened at all. It is quite a testament to the mindstorms nxt hardware/software architecture that it can be used so flexibly in robotics.
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kenneth 1:17PM (12/18/2006)
this guy is from my country, catalonia (spain). the voice you can listen is from the tv channel tv3, to be more accurate, the guy who talks about sports in the noon edition of the news.
besides that, i don't think this is useful in the US but it really is here in spain where streets are narrow and it's also full of assholes that do not stop until they hear and feel the rear bumper crashing into the car in the back...
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BackOnTrack 1:47PM (12/14/2006)
Wow... what a bunch of useless comments! I'd sure like to see one of you childhood wonders design a self parking lego vechicle for $249. Yes, LEGO... not a LEXUS or a BMW...
Impressive work!
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SilverAero 3:53PM (12/14/2006)
Make you wonder how advanced that car realy is if a toy thats been out for years can do the same thing.
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Chris 5:22PM (12/14/2006)
SilverAero,
The generation of Mindstorms (NXT) shown in this video isn't that old, maybe a year or two. Sure it's made out of Legos, but the robotic brain in the Mindstorms kit is what makes this possible.
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John 4:59PM (12/14/2006)
Nonsense... this LEGO mobile drove half of itself onto the curb, and rammed the cars ahead and behind it...
I can do such a simplistic programming in 2 hours or less. Elementary computer science project.
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Baapo 2:15AM (12/15/2006)
Boy, these people at Autoblog will jump on any and every opportunity to criticize the Japanese...
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dakota 3:09AM (12/15/2006)
"Nonsense... this LEGO mobile drove half of itself onto the curb, and rammed the cars ahead and behind it...
I can do such a simplistic programming in 2 hours or less. Elementary computer science project.
"
If you actually watch the video, during the entire self park procedure the car did not hit anything. Only when the car was told to move out of the space is when it hit something, the Lexus can not drive forward on it's own.
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Richard Warren 12:04PM (12/15/2006)
#1 Agreed, parallel parking is a piece of cake. All the automatic suff is marketing to say, "Look what we offer that they don't" just trying to gain a few more sales points.
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dreesemonkey 8:50AM (12/15/2006)
I'm with #12. Don't you think it's a bit ridiculous to argue that it's crap because it hit the 'car' coming out? It's a cool project someone did.
It's made of leggos. Lighten up.
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