Fully automatic Park Assist Plus. Volkswagen was one of the first vehicle manufacturers to offer an automatic parking aid for its vehicles: Park Assist. New evolutionary stages of this increasingly intelligent system have been developed up to the present day. With the assistance of ultrasound sensors, it is possible to drive in and out of a parking space semi-automatically – this is possible both for parking bays located parallel to the road and perpendicular parking spaces. The vehicle takes over the steering and, in case of emergency, also braking. In the case of perpendicular parking spaces, both reverse parking and semi-automatic forward parking are supported. All Volkswagen models with Park Assist steer fully automatically during the parking process. With the new Touareg, two enhancements of this assist system are now being introduced: Park Assist Plus and Park Assist with remote control. With Park Assist Plus, it is now possible to drive fully automatically into parallel and perpendicular parking bays both forwards and backwards instead of just semi-automatically. As soon as the Touareg recognises a suitable parking space, the driver presses and holds the Park Assist button (Drive button) – and the parking manoeuvres start. For this purpose, the Touareg uses a total of twelve ultrasound sensors and the four cameras of the Area View system (at the front and rear and in the exterior mirrors). For the camera images, Volkswagen makes use of progressive sensor fusion, which significantly increases the accuracy of object detection. This allows the Touareg to also perform assisted parking in garages, for example. The Touareg stops manoeuvring immediately when the Drive button is released.
Park Assist with remote control. The most advanced version of the system is the new Park Assist with remote control. For this feature, the driver uses a smartphone – and the new VW Remote Park Assist Plus app. This is how it works: generally in the case of Park Assist Plus, the driver presses the P button in the top left of the infotainment system to activate the search for a parking space. A message appears: “Searching for parking spaces”. As soon as the Touareg recognises suitable parking spaces – in traffic, at home or in multi-storey car parks – it displays this in the infotainment system, including the position and type of parking space. The driver selects one of the offered parking spaces. A message then appears: “Please apply the brake and keep the button pressed or select Park Assist with remote control”. Up to this point, operation of Park Assist Plus and Park Assist with remote control is the same. If the driver decides to use Park Assist with remote control, the driver leaves the vehicle, takes the vehicle key with them, and activates the parking process in the app. To do this, the driver presses the Drive button on the smartphone, which is equivalent to the same button in the vehicle. The parking process then starts. For safety reasons, the Drive button must be kept pressed continuously or the Touareg will stop immediately. The SUV now carries out the process of driving into a parking space completely independently and automatically. In order to activate automatic driving out of a parking space by smartphone, the driver starts the engine in the app via a separate Engine button. After the engine has been switched on and the operation for driving out of a parking space has been activated, the Engine graphic turns into the Drive button icon. The process of driving out of a parking space now begins. The Drive button must also be kept pressed continuously here for safety reasons. The manoeuvres for driving out of a parking space are displayed on the smartphone in parallel.
SUV plug-in hybrid with Trailer Assist. The SUV uses Trailer Assist to manoeuvre a trailer backwards into a parking space or gateway almost automatically. In E-MODE, this takes place with zero local emissions. To manoeuvre the Touareg eHybrid and the Touareg R and trailer in reverse, the driver stops behind the parking space for the trailer and shifts into reverse gear. The system is activated by pressing the “Park Assist” button. The exterior mirror adjustment switch then appears on the display. The driver is instructed how to set the desired steering angle using the mirror switch, which acts as a joystick. As soon as the driver moves the switch, a symbol with trailer appears on the display. Here the current articulation angle and the articulation angle of the trailer newly set by the driver is displayed. With the aid of the exterior mirror switch, the driver sets the desired direction of travel of the car and trailer. “Trailer Assist” takes over the specified steering angle. The car and trailer are automatically aligned using the Park Assist control unit in conjunction with the electromechanical steering. In the first manoeuvring phase, the driver selects the articulation angle (up to 75°) to turn in reverse in a certain direction or to drive on a curve. When the trailer is then facing straight in the direction of the target position, the driver finally simply pulls back the mirror adjustment switch. The car and trailer now drive precisely in reverse in the trailer direction, without having to make manual corrections, and park the trailer as desired.
Travel Assist up to 250 km/h. One of the new features in the Touareg is the optionally available Travel Assist. Until now, this system has made assisted driving in other Volkswagen vehicles possible up to a speed of 210 km/h. But for the first time, on German motorways this assistance is available up to a speed of 250 km/h. Travel Assist relies on systems including ACC Adaptive Cruise Control (longitudinal guidance) and Lane Assist lane keeping system (lateral guidance). Travel Assist is activated using the new multifunction steering wheel. For legal and safety-relevant reasons, drivers must permanently monitor the system – meaning they must have at least one hand on the steering wheel. Thanks to new capacitive sensor technology in the Touareg’s steering wheel, drivers need merely to touch it.