The SS Sedan is Chevrolet’s first and only vehicle to offer standard Automatic Parking Assist.

The technology uses sensors on the front and rear bumpers to detect the width and depth of parallel and reverse right-angle parking spaces to provide hands-free parking help.

“Even some of the most experienced drivers in the world loathe parallel parking,” said Scott Hollopeter, vehicle dynamics engineer for the SS. “Automatic Parking Assist is designed to help alleviate that anxiety in situations where more experience is required to park a vehicle.”

The system can detect obstacles, gauge the size of a parking space, assess distance to the curb and calculate optimum steering angles for each parking space. The driver, following instructions on the Driver Information Center, controls the accelerator and brake while the Automatic Parking Assist controls the steering.

Signals sent from the sensors in the bumpers to the electric power steering rack allow the vehicle to steer itself into the space.

“Technologies that provide help in parking and even vehicles that can park themselves started, as most technologies do, on luxury cars but they have proliferated to more mainstream vehicles,” said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for AutoTrader.com. “They have broad appeal -- from newly licensed young drivers to older drivers -- and are also attractive to people who live in increasingly congested urban areas.”

For parallel parking, the driver pulls alongside a parking space until the vehicle’s rear bumper passes the rear wheel of the car parked in front of the open space. The driver then shifts into reverse and the car steers itself into the space. The backup camera provides a visual indication of how close the SS is to surrounding cars.

The reverse perpendicular parking process works in a similar way. The driver presses the Automatic Parking Assist button twice and follows instructions in the Driver Information Center to safely park the vehicle.

To watch a video demonstrating Automatic Parking Assist in the Chevrolet SS, click on the photo or link above.