BMW 330i Vs Model 3 in Auto Park Comparison

[diplomat33]

Found this neat video comparing the auto park in the BMW 330i and the Model 3:

I know we sometimes criticize Model 3's auto park for being too slow but it is actually pretty good. Tesla's Auto Park works. The auto park in the BMW is laughably bad, actually trying to perpendicular park in a parallel parking space. LOL.

The BMW does have a reversing assistant feature where the car will record your steering maneuvers and then repeat them in reverse. This feature can allow you to say pull into a tight driveway and then have the car safely pull out by just repeating what you did in reverse. I guess it might be comparable to Tesla's Enhanced Summon.

But again, I feel like Tesla's Enhanced Summon is far better than BMW's Reverse Assistant because the reverse assistant will not be autonomous and is a very robotic and limited feature. It is simply repeating steering controls in reverse. If the environment changes, the reverse assistant will fail and cause damage or injury. So the BMW owner has to monitor the reverse assistant closely. Tesla's Enhanced Summon is more autonomous as nothing is rigged or pre-mapped or pre-recorded. The Tesla car is monitoring the environment and figuring things out on its own. And ES can be used in more scenarios. And I am sure with AP3, it will get better, faster and safer where eventually, the Tesla owner won't need to monitor the car at all.

 

[Eno Deb]

Looks to me like they were trying to force the BMW to park in a spot that was too small for parallel parking. OTOH, I have not yet managed to get my Model 3 to recognize a parallel parking spot. But it often offers to parallel park into the neighboring lane while I'm standing in traffic at a red light.

I'd be very impressed if Enhanced Summon was able to navigate the car out of a tricky situation like the reverse assistant does in that video.

 

[thewishmaster]

Looks to me like they were trying to force the BMW to park in a spot that was to small for parallel parking. OTOH, I have not yet managed to get the Tesla to recognize a parallel parking spot. But it often offers to parallel park while I'm standing in traffic at a red light.

I'd be very impressed if Enhanced Summon was able to navigate the car out of a tricky situation like the reverse assistant does in that video.

That was my guess too. I googled the dimensions and the 330i is only 1 inch longer than the Model 3, so in theory it should've been able to park in that spot just as well.

I've used the parallel parking feature a bunch of times and it has worked pretty well for me.

 

[diplomat33]

I'd be very impressed if Enhanced Summon was able to navigate the car out of a tricky situation like the reverse assistant does in that video.

I don't see why not. Tesla's ultrasonics will be able to detect if the car gets too close to anything. It's really just obstacle avoidance. And the owner drops a pin on the map to indicate where to go. And if Tesla also uses all the cameras to get a good "map" of the surroundings, it should be doable.

 

[Eno Deb]

I don't see why not. Tesla's ultrasonics will be able to detect if the car gets too close to anything. It's really just obstacle avoidance. And the owner drops a pin on the map to indicate where to go. And if Tesla also uses all the cameras to get a good "map" of the surroundings, it should be doable.

We'll see soon enough. I have some doubts, given that the ultrasound sensors can't detect object geometry (and may not detect narrow objects like the pole in the video at all) and the cameras don't have a view in close proximity of the car.

 

[acoste]

The auto park in the BMW is laughably bad, actually trying to perpendicular park in a parallel parking space. LOL.

The car measured the spot and decided that it's too small. Either the BMW is more conservative or the Model 3 is more rounded so it can select smaller spots. BMW did a good job both when parking behind the other car and when it parked perpendicular (selected by the user).

 

[diplomat33]

The car measured the spot and decided that it's too small. Either the BMW is more conservative or the Model 3 is more rounded so it can select smaller spots. BMW did a good job both when parking behind the other car and when it parked perpendicular (selected by the user).

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I disagree that it did a good job. Sure, it executed the task correctly but it failed at higher level thinking. If the spot was too small, then it should have notified the driver before trying to auto park. Instead, it tried the auto park anyway and the first time, it goes past the spot intended by the driver and parks in the wrong spot and the second time, it goes ahead and perpendicular parks in a parallel parking spot. The first try is somewhat ok because it at least parked correctly even if it not where the driver wanted to park but the second try is not ok. You can't tell me that having your car stick out like that at a 90 degree angle would be an acceptable way to park. So no, that's not a good job. It's a failure of programming if when you try to park in a space that is slightly too small, the user can select a perpendicular parking and your car just goes ahead and perpendicular parks in a parallel parking space!

In comparison, the Model 3 that is virtually the same size as the BMW, the car correctly identified a parallel parking space and executed the auto park slowly but perfectly.

 

[SR22pilot]

My car offers to autopark all the time. Of course it happens when I am stopped at a red light and there is a gap in the cars in the lane to my right. So far I have turned down the car's offer.