Autoblog recently went to Japan to drive cars, ride trains, and talk to carmakers about automotive history and the future of mobility. This video is part of a larger in a series of special reports from Japan.
ATSUGI, Japan — During our recent trip to Japan, we got to spend a day out in the wild with a 2018 Nissan Leaf. It was equipped with ProPilot Park, a self-parking system that isn't available in the U.S. yet. Of course, we took the opportunity to test it out in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven (which one of the few places to get cash out of an ATM, as it turns out).
ProPilot Park uses cameras and sensors to navigate the vehicle into a parking spot. It can do nose-in, back-in or parallel parking. To use it, one hits the Park button, and drives alongside the intended parking space. The car will show the space on the central touchscreen display, and the driver can select among multiple spaces, or adjust the car's positioning within the space. Then one holds down the park button, and the car will make its way into the spot, steering, braking and shifting between forward and reverse without any help from the human driver. When it's done, it lets you know with a beep and puts the car into park.
The thing is, this system takes its sweet time navigating into a parking spot. It will do multiple-point turns to get in there, and it drives at a crawling pace. It seems like a great feature for getting into tight spots, or when there is limited visibility, but you'd better hope the guy behind you is patient.
Check out ProPilot Park in the video above, and make sure to see our video review of the Nissan Leaf, and our other videos from our trip to Japan.
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