Limitations of Park Assist Pilot*

Updated 10/27/2020

The Park Assist Pilot (PAP1) function cannot detect everything in all situations and may therefore have limited functionality.

A driver should be aware about the following examples of Park Assist Pilot limitations.

Warning

The parking sensors have blind spots where obstacles cannot be detected.
Pay particular attention if there are people and animals near the car.
Bear in mind that the front of the car may swing out towards oncoming traffic during the parking manoeuvre.
Objects/obstacles may be closer to the car than they appear to be on the screen.

Important

Objects situated higher than the sensor detection area are not included when calculating the parking manoeuvre, which could cause the function to swing into the parking space too early – such parking spaces should be avoided for this reason.

Parking is discontinued

A parking sequence will be discontinued:

if the driver moves the steering wheel
if the car is driven too quickly - above 7 km/h (4 mph)
if the driver presses Cancel in the centre display
when the anti-lock brakes or the Electronic stability control are engaged - e.g. when a wheel loses grip on a slippery road
as the steering servo for speed-dependent steering wheel resistance is working at reduced power – e.g. when cooling due to overheating.
when the parking sensors detect a vehicle or pedestrian within the intended route in front of or behind the car during a parking manoeuvre, the car is auto-braked to stationary.

Where applicable, a message in the centre display states the reason for a parking sequence being discontinued.

Important

Under certain circumstances, the function is unable to find parking spaces - one reason for this may be the fact that there is interference with the sensors from external sound sources which emit the same ultrasound frequencies as those with which the system works.

Examples of such sources include horns, wet tyres on asphalt, pneumatic brakes and exhaust noises from motorcycles etc.

Note

Dirt, ice and snow covering the sensors will reduce their function and may prevent measurement.

Driver responsibility

The driver should bear in mind that the function is an aid – not an infallible, fully-automatic function. The driver must therefore be prepared to interrupt a parking step.

There are also a few details to bear in mind while parking, e.g.:

The driver is always responsible for determining whether the space selected by the function is suitable for parking.
Do not use the function if snow chains or a spare wheel are fitted.
Do not use the function if cargo items are protruding from the car.
Heavy rain or snow may cause the system to measure the parking space incorrectly.
During the search and check-measurement of the parking space, the function may miss objects positioned deep in the parking space.
Parking spaces on narrow streets are not always feasible, since the space required for manoeuvring may not be sufficient.
Use approved tyres2 with the correct tyre pressure - this affects the ability of the function to park the car.
The function bases itself on the locations of vehicles already parked nearby – if they are inappropriately parked, your own car's tyres and wheel rims may be damaged by contact with the kerb.
Perpendicular parking spaces may be missed or offered unnecessarily if one parked car is protruding more than other parked cars.
The function is designed for parking on straight streets – not sharp curves or bends. For this reason, make sure the car is parallel to the potential parking spaces when the function measures the space.