Real World BMW Parking Assistant Plus Testing | TestDrive Garage

We test BMW's Parking Assistant Plus to see if it works in the real world.

The all-new 2019 BMW X5 xDrive50i has a feature called Parking Assistant Plus, which offers high-definition Surround View cameras and BMW's Park Distance Control sensors around the vehicle to automatically park a vehicle for you, both parallel and perpendicularly. We test the hands-free parking mode to see if it works in the real world.

Our testing took place over the course of around 10 minutes in a real parking lot occupied with real cars. We wanted to see if this self parking system could handle things like ice, or worn-out parking space lines, or cars parked too far away from each other. We tried to keep the editing to a minimum, but as we started testing this system with the intention of using a short clip for an episode of TestDrive Spotlight we did edit out some portions where we restarted the introduction of the segment.

We have two angles for our parking test and switch between them based on the ideal viewing angle for the audience.

BMW claims you only need to activate the system by pressing the Parking Assistant button once and driving until the vehicle detects a spot. Once the spot has been located the driver is supposed to press the P button on the iDrive screen and confirm through the iDrive controller that BMW is not responsible for any damage caused due to this system. The Parking Assistant Plus is then supposed to park the vehicle automatically with the driver's hands off the steering wheel and the brake pedal ready to engage should it be required.

Once the vehicle has been parked automatically the Parking Assistant will place the vehicle in park and disengage. Our testing shows what you might expect if you live in a climate like Quebec and try to use this system in the winter. It seems the Parking Assistant is designed to be used under ideal weather circumstances where parking lines are easily visible and other vehicles are parked correctly in their respective spots.

TestDrive is proudly produced in Acton, Québec, Canada.

[christiankonig]

Sweat was running down your forehead, I have seen it.😁

[NeutralGenericUser]

This is something you get used to, believe me. To the people who think the BMW videos are staged somehow, they're not. Once you learn the peculiarities, it works flawlessly. For example, the last 2 failed attempts were because you let go of the brakes slightly before accepting the warning. It does not detect large amounts of open spaces next to each other, because that's not the point of the system. If there are 5 open spots, you don't need a parking assistant.

[rkalla]

This is actually fantastic because this is how ALL of us will experience it and some BMW engineer showing it work in a perfect staged scenario.

[vladsgi]

The system works, if you now how to use it properly and what are the situations when can detect a space. If you read the manual you will see why it did't work how you wanted, but how it was designed by the engineers.The parallel parking is perfect, and this perpendicular one is good in 70-80% of the situations. The reason is parallel parking is v2.0 while perpendicular is the 1.0 gen..

[ZohaibMasood]

Just got mine 2 days ago. This is the first thing I tried. Love it.

[Dactylonian]

Bravo for posting the unedited version of this video 😅

[jeffcristofono]

I've only found the system to work when there's a single spot open between two cars. It doesn't seem to engage when there's multiple spots open.

It's neat but more more novelty than practical. Can count on one hand how many times I've used it in my G20.

[mariannalacrosse]

I. Was sweating with you too. Nice job when it worked . Glad it worked . Thanks for testing it . It’s nice technology to have as assistance and backup ..

[sti]

if this wasn't the realest world testing I've ever seen...

[JulezWinnfield]

I can definitely see the benefit of using this technology to parallel park on a city street where some spaces are tighter than others, but perpendicular parking in a shopping center parking lot with evenly spaced stalls laid out in a uniformed pattern? If you can't gauge the distance and spacing on your own on the first try, you should surrender your license to the authorities immediately and be forever forced to rely on ridesharing and public transportation as your primary means of conveyance.

[markham]

Have the parking assistant on the X3. Be careful when parking in the snow and also when there is diagonal parking in the parking lot. While it won't hit a car, the parking won't be centered. So you will have to fix it. I think it is a good feature to demonstrate to your family and friends but not practical in busy parking lots - which are basically all lots!

[IncogNito-vztm]

Love how this shows what really happens in the real world to the majority of us 😂

[eazy]

Thats really weird, Ive never experienced a case like yours in my one year with 118i, maybe the camera/sensors are not working properly in your car

[theamazoner]

I believe you need to drive less then 8km/h for it to sense

[nicolasb]

Well I confirm, my bmw 330e also doesn't detect the spits that well...

[sunshadow]

It was designated to work in county where parking has clear marks. Canada certainly fails on that department. Till now I didn’t know canada is third word country.

In Germany, this Feature working 100 out of 100.

[aidenp]

I think the car is going great by not letting you choose spots because there’s ice on the floor and I think the car needs white lines to do it?

[huzaylhashmi]

When the car does not detect it that means you have to get a bit more closer to the parking spot

[Austinomon]

Nice video, I have a few questions, anyone who knows could answer.

1. Is this feature an option for bmws or is it standard as long as you have that parking sensor button thing?

2. Does the car need 360 view to have this feature

3. (Don’t come at me for this just curious about it) will the new Supra have this feature? If not would it even be possible to add it lol

[Originsindabuko]

You wer using it all wrong, and why do you drive in the middle of the road, so far away from parking spots, geeze, mine works 100% of the time, read up on these things before uploading a video