Zeekr today conducted a parking face-off pitting the auto parking system against human drivers. Overall the Zeekr’s auto parking system had a resounding win although a human driver did clinch the fastest time.
The test involved getting the Zeekr 007 into what was described as a 2060 mm wide mechanical parking space – presumably one of the spaces for a vertical car stacking system which are quite common in Asia. These can be tricky due to a slope up and channels for the wheels to go into and a Zeekr 007 itself has a width of 1900 mm.
Unfortunately full details such as the total number of drivers taking part and the total number of attempts are unavailable. However the success rate of the automatic system was 100% versus 66.7% for human drivers. One common complaint about such systems is that they are too slow. While the fastest time for a human driver was much faster than the system’s best time the average times tell a different story. The fastest overall time was 31.75 seconds by a human driver versus a much slower 51.75 seconds by the car. Average times though were 57.85 seconds for the car whereas humans were slower at 64.07 seconds. Furthermore, the slowest time achieved was by a human and was much slower than by the car – 2 minutes 40.57 seconds compared to just 1 minute 13.50 seconds for the Zeekr 007. The car also managed a time under a minute on 15 attempts whereas human drivers only achieved this 6 times.
Overall the car was faster than drivers across two thirds of attempts. Where the car excelled even more was with centering in the space which was only achieved in 38% of human attempts but in every attempt by the car. Again unfortunately nothing is said about what being centered was actually considered to be.
The whole exercise is likely part of promotion for the foll out of the OS 6.1 in the Zeekr 007 which sees the intelligent parking function fully upgraded. Part of this includes the industry’s first automatic parking assistance for mechanical parking spaces. This function involves Zeekr’s self-developed fisheye bird’s eye view (BEV) system which helps the car deal with slopes, columns and chains. As part of the parking process the car automatically retracts the side view mirrors.
More normal parking scenarios can be tackled with an average time of 36 seconds and the system can deal with a wide range of parking spaces in what Zeekr call an industry leading system.
Deliveries of the Zeekr 007 commenced in December 2023. The five models in the range are priced from 209,900 yuan to 299,900 yuan (29,050-41,500 USD).
Sources: Fast Technology, Auto Sina
