Ford makes perpendicular parking hands-free for our managing editor

A few years ago, Ford introduced the Active Park Assist, which incorporated the parallel-parking aid. In the Philippines, we saw this system on the current-generation Focus. On a recent visit to the Ford Asia Pacific Product Development Center in Australia, we tried a new feature being developed under the American carmaker's park assist portfolio.

This time, the focus was on perpendicular parking.

This was demonstrated to us in a Ford Fusion, a North American midsize sedan being used as an engineering vehicle in the design facility in Melbourne. The hands-free perpendicular park assist works pretty much like its parallel-parking counterpart.

The system detects a vacant slot and prompts you to simply put the gear in reverse, take your hands off the wheel, and control the brakes. It then proceeds to park your car like a pro.

While the system is not yet available on any Ford vehicle worldwide, we hope it makes it to the next model that will be brought into our market. On the upcoming Everest, perhaps?

Photos by Stephanie Maureen Asi