A magical APP that will let you park with high difficulty if you can use your phone

    A trailer is connected to the rear of a car at the Schwaebisch Gmünd test track in Germany. This is a new parking application being tested by ZF Lenksysteme (a joint venture between ZF Friedrichshafen and Bosch) - Smart Trailer Parking.

    Before testing the app, the testers invited a volunteer to park a car with a trailer at the rear into a parking space. After many attempts, the volunteer still failed to complete the task. Whenever he wanted the trailer to turn in a certain direction, it would not move as he wished. After the driver adjusted the steering wheel several times, the trailer had formed an angle of nearly 90° with the front half of the car, and it was impossible to park in the specified position smoothly. In the end, the trailer compartment blocked the rearview mirror view of the car in front, forming a large blind spot area.

    When it comes to parking, most novice drivers can park their cars smoothly after a while. However, when a trailer is attached to the rear of the vehicle, it is a difficult task even for experienced drivers.

    Among the autonomous driving technologies that have been developed and successfully applied, the parking assist function has long been listed. Therefore, parking is no longer a problem for a single vehicle. However, for a pickup truck like the Ford F-150 that may often be connected to a trailer, even with a parking assist system, how to control the direction of the trailer's wheels?

    If the trailer can be connected to the electronic control system of the towing vehicle, so that the auxiliary system that controls the towing vehicle can also control the trailer's electronic control unit, it will be no problem to park this difficult-to-handle trailer structure smoothly into the parking space. ZF Lenksysteme developed and turned it into reality based on this idea.

Smart Trailer Parking  

    Smart Trailer Parking is a mobile APP that allows reverse control through a smartphone. In the application, you can set the gear of the transmission to forward or reverse, as well as the speed of the car. After the settings are completed, the user can start reversing. The control of reversing is also very simple. Just drag the body of the car on the screen with your finger, and the trailer in the parking lot will move with your finger, as shown in the picture above. The driver does not need to control the vehicle himself to park the vehicle correctly in the garage. And because the controller is not in the car, the obstacles around the vehicle can be seen at a glance, so even a 3-year-old child can successfully complete parking.       

    To achieve this function, the smartphone must be able to "communicate" with the various components in the car. The core vehicle components involved in the Smart Trailer Parking application include ZF Lenksysteme's Servolectric electronic power steering system, automatic transmission, and a trailer coupling device with a joint angle sensor. These components on the market are already equipped with sensors and ECUs. The only thing that needs to be done is to write programs for them and add new functions such as connecting with smartphones.

    It is said that ZF Lenksysteme will not mass-produce this application, but will only make a prototype of the technical system, leaving the work of market application and network connection with the vehicle electronic system to the automakers.