In Car Technology: Parking Aids
Technology has come a long way in recent years, and for those of us who hate to park, parking aids have proved ablessing. No more of those annoying parking jokes when you happen to dink the curb, or worse, crash into a bollard. Here, we’re going to consider parking aids in more depth.
What Are the Various Types of Parking Aid?
As far as new technology goes, there are two general types of parking aid:
1.Parking sensors: within this category, we can further divide sensors into those that use electromagnetism and those that use sound waves (technically echolocation).
a. Electromagnetic parking aids create an electromagnetic ‘umbrella’ around the car. When something penetrates that umbrella, it activates an alarm sound – like a beep. The closer the object gets to the car, the louder the beep. These are the most comprehensive sensors because they can detect objects of all sizes above a certain size (a little larger than a brick). Clearly, it’s important that they don’t pick up objects that are too small, or they would go off whenever a fly approached, rendering them useless.
b.Sound wave parking aids: these work by bouncing sound waves out and measuring their return. They can sense the distance of objects by judging the length of time it takes for the sound wave to return. The closer the object is, the more they beep. They are less precise than the electromagnetic aids, and can miss some smaller objects, such as bollards, if they are in the blind spots. However, they are cheaper than the electromagnetic aids, and this is why people choose to use them.
2.Parking cameras: a parking camera can help enormously. Here, rather than being blind, as is the case with the sensors, you can actually see for yourself whether there are any obstacles. A parking camera is probably the safest parking aid, because you can actually see what’s behind the car. You should not become too complacent, though, because they can have blind spots too. However, this is much the same as the blind spot that you have with your wing mirrors and rear-view mirror: it only takes once for you to miss it, to remember to check every time.
There are other types of parking aid, such as additional rear view mirrors, and stick on mirrors for wind mirrors (-that’s a bit of a mouthful!), but here, we’re just considering the computerised and electronic technologies.
Will You Have To Make Modifications to Your Car?
This will depend on whether the car comes with mounts. Some cars come with factory installed parking sensors and cameras. With these cars, you usually don’t have to make modifications. Furthermore, some parking aids have mounts that clip on to the car; again, you won’t have to make modifications with this type of aid. However, some parking aids require special mountings, and you may have to drill into the car to create these mountings. Make sure you do the research before you buy your parking aids.
Follow us :
