Ford is developing a new automated parking technology that could enable drivers to park with only the push of a button from inside or outside of their car.
Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and complete the blanks in the transcript with the missing words.
The activity is suitable for Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students.
Parking in a tight (1) ... is the bugbear of every driver. And it’s not just that (2) ... spaces can make it hard to get out of the car. They can also leave you with scrapes and dents that are expensive to (3) ... . So imagine a car that does the dirty work itself.
Engineers at Ford have developed the (4) ...-... car. It first finds a parking space and then manoeuvres into it. The driver doesn’t even need to be inside.
Researchers have now (5) ... in installing the technology in a real car. The next step is to make it available to the drivers as a (6) ... on a production vehicle.
With perpendicular parking, it’s trying to help someone (7) ... into that tight space, and allow them to have some automated help within their vehicle to help them (8) ... a driving manoeuvre that they’re going to have to do frequently in their lives.
It’s estimated that there are more than 30 million off-street parking spaces in Europe. And although average car (9) ... has increased by 16% over the past 20 years, many parking spaces are still the same size. Which means the new technology is also useful when leaving a space. The motorist doesn’t have to (7) ... into the car. They just press a (10) ... and the car drives out itself.
Key:
1 spot 2 narrow 3 repair 4 self-parking 5 succeeded 6 feature 7 squeeze 8 achieve 9 width 10 button
