Ford to remove parallel parking feature, impact on Everest and Territory sold in Vietnam

Ford is considering removing the parallel parking feature from the Active Park Assist technology package. This is a move to optimize the cost of producing cars in the context of high inflation causing the prices of new cars to increase rapidly.

In a recent meeting, Kumar Galhotra – Ford’s Chief Operating Officer – stated that very few customers use the parallel parking assistance, so removing this feature would not have much impact.

“The parking assistance feature allows cars to automatically complete the parallel parking process. However, very few people are using this feature and we can remove it to save around $60 per car,” Kumar Galhotra said.

Galhotra added that removing this feature could help Ford save $10 million per year.

The parallel parking assistance feature is part of Ford’s Active Park Assist driver assistance technology package. Blue Oval is one of the pioneering car manufacturers to equip this technology, with the aim of reducing difficulties for drivers when parking in urban areas.

So far, many Ford models have been equipped with this feature, even the affordable ones. According to statistics, most new car models currently on the market have the parallel parking assistance feature.

However, contrary to expectations, the parallel parking feature is not widely used by drivers. Ford discovered this after analyzing data collected on customers’ cars.

According to Carbuzz, car manufacturers are introducing more advanced features for their new products to attract customers. Some cars can even park themselves without a driver (although only under certain conditions), but many customers still prefer to perform driving operations themselves, rather than completely rely on technology.

Ford currently equips Active Park Assist version 2.0 for many models and it is part of the Co-Pilot360 automated driving assistance system. In the US market, the popular models F-150 Lightning and Explorer are both equipped with this feature. The parallel parking assistance feature also appears on the officially sold SUV models Everest and Territory in Vietnam.

Thái Sơn (Tuoitrethudo)

Reference: Carbuzz