Skoda Park Assist Real Life Tests Prove It Works

Early park assists were terrible to the point where even a novice can do a better job. Premium automakers have the best systems. Did you check out the one on the BMW 8 Series and X5? It remembers the way a car drove and can back out a long way, even after shutting down the vehicle. Anyway, just because Skodas aren't as expensive as BMWs doesn't mean they don't need park assist, quite the opposite.

The Czech automaker makes some of the most significant vehicles of any European company. Obviously, the Superb is a nightmare, but even an Octavia can be difficult unless you have front parking sensors because it's so freaking long.

Today, we're going to look at the systems on the Superb and also the Karoq. It's currently their lest expensive crossover, but prices in Germany start at almost €30,000, so Park Assist isn't that expensive compared to the car as a whole. A suitable spot for reversing into is the length of the vehicle plus 80 centimeters. You press a button, scanners down the side look for a spot and beep if they find one.

You put the car in reverse and let it do all the steering. The driver still has to control braking and to accelerate, so crashing is still very much a possibility. In one of the tests, you can see just how close the Karoq comes. Of course, this is a confident driver who knows where to stop based the reversing camera.

Park Assist also does bay parking, which is useful if you don't feel like getting perfectly parallel. But while getting out, you might not be able to see everything around you, which is why Skoda offers Blind Spot Detect and Rear Traffic Alert systems. See how that stops the car from hitting a pedestrian.