I tried the Active Park Asst today for the 1st time on my 2016 GLE. When backing up into the parallel spot, the car hit the curb. I consider that a parking failure; I could do much better myself. Has anyone experienced poor performance from this feature?

 

Mine has gotten very, very close several times and maybe hit it once if I remember correctly. But over all it has parked itself correctly several times. Give it another try.

 

The options packages for the SUV and Coupe are drastically different when it comes to this feature. With the Coupe, Active Parking Assist was bundled with all of the features below. I wanted those other features, not so much APA. In my opinion, APA has two purposes. One, it's for people who aren't very good at parking. Years ago I had a neighbor who would park "by feel". Yes, she would back up until she hit the car behind her. Then, she would pull forward until she hit the car in front of her. At first I thought this was purely accidental. After she did it at least a half dozen times, I realized this was her method of judging distance. She never did get the car into the parking space. She finally had to call someone out of the house to park the car for her. These are the types of people who need APA. Of course, it wasn't invented back then. The second purpose is to impress your friends. Personally, I grew up in the city. I learned how to parallel park before I learned how to drive. I don't need it, although I have used it a few times just to test it out. It didn't hit the curb, but it comes awfully close. NEVER give 100% trust to any autonomous driving system. Just watch all of the Tesla videos on YouTube. There are cars that drive through plate glass windows in parking lots, drive down stairs, etc., etc., etc. There will never be a perfect autonomous driving system. Too many unpredictable variables that software can't account for. I realized this from the start. That's why I set the right rearview mirror to automatically tilt downward whenever in reverse. This allows me to see the curb even more precisely than the cameras. Even though the car can park itself, I still want to be able to watch what it's doing. To anyone who uses APA, I strongly recommend reading this entire section in the manual. There are tons of situations that they caution you about.

• Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC
• Active Steering Assist
• Active Brake Assist with Cross-Traffic Function
• PRE-SAFE PLUS
• Active Blind Spot Assist
• Active Lane Keeping Assist
• Speed Limit Assist
• Active Parking Assist
• Surround View System

 

I enjoy APA on my GLE. The human-machine interface requires some getting used to. The driver needs to judge the distance, laterally, from the curbside obstacle. For example, a row of parked cars. If the driver is too near the curb at the start of the maneuver, it's likely the APA system will bump the curb. Once this is worked out, the system works flawlessly in my experience. The comments above are for parallel parking.

 

..........