With Cadillac recently introducing its self-driving Super Cruise system and Google clocking over 140,000 miles on California roads with its fleet of Toyota robot Prii, autonomous vehicles have been in the headlines a lot lately. Maybe a baby step for people not yet willing to take a passive role behind the wheel at highway speeds are the remote-control self-parking cars shown by BMW and Volkswagen -- and now, also, by China’s BYD.

At the Beijing Motor Show this week, the Chinese automaker will unveil its F3 Plus, featuring what the company calls “remote-control driving.” The F3 Plus comes with a special clear key that’s used to start the car, move it forward or backward, steer it left and right and drive on its own at a “restricted speed.”

Like the technology from BMW and VW, BYD bills the system as “a perfect solution when the parking space is not wide enough for the driver to exit the car once parked,” meaning you can exit the vehicle first, then park it. BYD also says that the F3 Plus can be driven remotely to pull it curbside so that the driver and passengers don’t have to, say, dash to the car in the rain.

If you’ve ever tried to steer a remote-control toy car you know that it doesn’t always go the direction you want it to ... and it usually ends up hitting something. Having a two-ton vehicle operated by remote control would certainly make bystanders and nearby car owners nervous – and liability lawyers very interested.

A technology like this would probably be difficult, if not impossible to implement in the U.S. given the litigious climate in this country. Interesting, then, that thus far only Europeans and Asian automakers have introduced remote-controlled self-parking systems.

[Source: Motor Authority]