[LarrySinNJ]

I've been experimenting with the Parking Assistant Plus feature. The "finding the spot" seems to work intermittently. I can drive through a lot that may be 50% full, and the car will only find a spot of 5%-10% of those available. Same is true with on-street parallel parking. I drive through the lot (or on the street when looking for parking) at 5-10MPH.

Once I do find a spot, the feature is cool and works well, and will hopefully save me from a good deal of wheel rash.

Curious how the rest of you are finding the feature.

[WXdrivefun]

Something obvious that the computer can more precisely back in and parallel park, better than myself coming within millimetres of the curb.

Didn't use it often, great to show off to family/friends, but this feature was included with the package for adaptive cruise with steering.

The right side mirror tilting downward when parallel parking is a holy grail..

[LogicalApex]

I would recommend reading the manual to familiarize yourself with its search limitations. It expects minimum distance limitations that are a bit larger than what you may feel comfortable handling directly.

[claykin]

PA+ doesn't detect parking lines, it detects cars. So, in a lot with parked cars scattered, it often won't detect spots.

It's strength is parking you in between cars in lots where there's few empty spots. Otherwise, it's kind of gimmicky.

Next Gen needs to hopefully detect lines and give users the option to choose the spot they want. This means more cameras.

[DBLDNon11]

My current '17 F30 340xi has parking assist and it has curbed my rims twice. It gets VERY close to the curb compared to my previous '14 F30 335xi. That said, it does work pretty well, but living in a big city, I don't have the luxury of driving 18mph while it looks for spots - people behind get pissed!

I'm hoping it is improved in the G20 as I will have one next spring!

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by DBLDNon11

My current '17 F30 340xi has parking assist and it has curbed my rims twice. It gets VERY close to the curb compared to my previous '14 F30 335xi. That said, it does work pretty well, but living in a big city, I don't have the luxury of driving 18mph while it looks for spots - people behind get pissed!

I'm hoping it is improved in the G20 as I will have one next spring!

The manual warns on the risk of curbing as it primarily reads the cars. As a result, if cars parked super close to the curb that you're letting the system use as guides can result in it getting super close and curbing the wheels.

[LarrySinNJ]

I posted the above thread last fall, and had hoped with a recent software upgrade to 3/2020.58 that the Parking Assistant feature would work better, but it still doesn't seem to find parking spaces.

Curious if any of you are having better experiences.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by LarrySinNJ

I posted the above thread last fall, and had hoped with a recent software upgrade to 3/2020.58 that the Parking Assistant feature would work better, but it still doesn't seem to find parking spaces.

Curious if any of you are having better experiences.

I use the parking assist features as a party trick when I have friends in the car with me.

On my own? It's mostly a useless feature. I can park by myself significantly quicker.

That being said, the things that I find most helpful and I use consistently on a daily basis are the surround view 360 cameras, 3D views (for curbs), and the reversing assistant for getting out of my tight garage without fear of ripping off a sideview mirror.

[Flamingi]

Just stumbled upon this thread and I have to say, there is a reason why BMW does not let anyone spec remote parking on company cars (for BMW employees) lol. I would have loved to get it just to show off the car moving without a driver a single time.

For the self parking feature itself, I do use it from time to time when there are tight parking spots in Munich. I have to say in contrast to what I read from others here, the parking assist does choose parking spots I personally would be afraid to park, maybe it is a different system in the US? Wouldn't surprise me. It does work only between other cars, not lines as others have said, and for me personally it did not curb the wheel (yet). Usually, you are faster parking yourself.

[sikotic]

I find myself using the auto-reverse feature more than anything to be honest lol. Depending on how complex the parking lot is, its quite fun to let the car navigate itself back out while I just sit back and watch the wheel spin.

I think I've only used the parallel park feature once in a real situation and it was quite nice. Another time I tried it just to mess around and it ended up backing me into someones driveway

[TheRetroGuy]

Originally Posted by claykin

PA+ doesn't detect parking lines, it detects cars. So, in a lot with parked cars scattered, it often won't detect spots.

It's strength is parking you in between cars in lots where there's few empty spots. Otherwise, it's kind of gimmicky.

This has mostly been my experience. In non-crowded lots, it seems to always decide on a corner space that is next to a non park-able grassy island, etc. which is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just something else besides cars it uses to judge an optimal parking space. So, for me, most of the time not that useful and it would be nice if it would just back into any space with perfect alignment that I select (mitigating the fact that the rear cross traffic alert sucks, because I wouldn't have to care in that case).

But the additional parking features such as the top down parking cam, the 3D views etc. are one of the top features of the car IMHO, I use them all the time.

[biikon]

Originally Posted by DBLDNon11

My current '17 F30 340xi has parking assist and it has curbed my rims twice. It gets VERY close to the curb compared to my previous '14 F30 335xi. That said, it does work pretty well, but living in a big city, I don't have the luxury of driving 18mph while it looks for spots - people behind get pissed!

I'm hoping it is improved in the G20 as I will have one next spring!

You don't have to let the system pick the parking spot by driving at low speed. Just pick it your self and when you put the gear to reverse, it will highlight the spot in the screen.
The problem is that it leaves at least 2 and a half inches from the curbes which is a bit too much.

[jane477]

Originally Posted by biikon

You don't have to let the system pick the parking spot by driving at low speed. Just pick it your self and when you put the gear to reverse, it will highlight the spot in the screen.
The problem is that it leaves at least 2 and a half inches from the curbes which is a bit too much.

is the any way to adjust this distance without so high end car brains rewriting?

[Casone238]

Quick question, I placed a order on 21 model and I thought the drivers assistance package came with parking assistance, I noticed too late, putting my incompetence aside, besides the 3D view is there anything else useful about that package? Reading the features online from the parking distance control, the only gain it’s the self parking and 3D view.

I wanted it for the 3D view, the park itself feature my c43 has it and I only used it when I wanted to show off to friends who never been in the car.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by Casone238

Quick question, I placed a order on 21 model and I thought the drivers assistance package came with parking assistance, I noticed too late, putting my incompetence aside, besides the 3D view is there anything else useful about that package? Reading the features online from the parking distance control, the only gain it’s the self parking and 3D view.

I wanted it for the 3D view, the park itself feature my c43 has it and I only used it when I wanted to show off to friends who never been in the car.

The backup assistant can be very useful. I use it almost everyday to get out of my tight garage.

[Casone238]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

The backup assistant can be very useful. I use it almost everyday to get out of my tight garage.

The back up assistant sounds useful I was hoping it was standard since the website doesn’t list that as one of the features of the package. Even tho I can’t think of any tight spaces that I would need to back out of. It’s would of those features I’ll probably never use but want to have just in case

[Skyrider01]

Originally Posted by Casone238

Quick question, I placed a order on 21 model and I thought the drivers assistance package came with parking assistance, I noticed too late, putting my incompetence aside, besides the 3D view is there anything else useful about that package? Reading the features online from the parking distance control, the only gain it’s the self parking and 3D view.

I wanted it for the 3D view, the park itself feature my c43 has it and I only used it when I wanted to show off to friends who never been in the car.

I don't find the parking feature very useful, but I got the package for the 3D cameras. And when I got the car I found out it had the back-up assistant, which is an added bonus. So yes, it's worth it for these 2 features.

[hamera]

I repeat. Both, Park Assist and Reversing Assistant are standard features. No need for 3D view option to have this.

[Skyrider01]

Originally Posted by hamera

I repeat. Both, Park Assist and Reversing Assistant are standard features. No need for 3D view option to have this.

You're right! The parking assistance package just adds the active PDC, 3D cameras and parallel parking.

[hamera]

Originally Posted by Skyrider01

You're right! The parking assistance package just adds the active PDC, 3D cameras and parallel parking.

Parallel and perpendicular parking is standard. What's the active PDC?

[Skyrider01]

Originally Posted by hamera

Parallel and perpendicular parking is standard. What's the active PDC?

I see you're in the UK. It might be standard there but in the US we have the Parking Assistance Package for $700.

It includes these 4 items:

Active Park Distance Control - this turns on the cameras and warning tones automatically when you are pulling into a parking spot when it senses the obstacles or curb in front.

Parking Assistant Plus - the self parking, both parallel and perpendicular.

Surround view with 3D view - the surround cameras and also required for the remote 3D view via the BMW Connected App.

Rear View Camera - not sure what the deal is on this as I thought that rear view cameras were now mandatory as of 2018. Maybe someone without the package can confirm whether they have the rear view camera or not.

[hamera]

Originally Posted by Skyrider01

I see you're in the UK. It might be standard there but in the US we have the Parking Assistance Package for $700.

It includes these 4 items:

Active Park Distance Control - this turns on the cameras and warning tones automatically when you are pulling into a parking spot when it senses the obstacles or curb in front.

Parking Assistant Plus - the self parking, both parallel and perpendicular.

Surround view with 3D view - the surround cameras and also required for the remote 3D view via the BMW Connected App.

Rear View Camera - not sure what the deal is on this as I thought that rear view cameras were now mandatory as of 2018. Maybe someone without the package can confirm whether they have the rear view camera or not.

Sorry, looks like there are differences in standard features.

In the UK there's a option called Parking Assistant Plus for £650 but the car parks itself without it anyway. It ads 3D view which is nice.

Yeah, the rear view camera is standard in the USA anyway.