There have been many incidents where people have accidentally stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake which have resulted in fatalitys. Nine people were killed at a market in California when someone did this recently; the non fatal version of this error usually results in damage to the drivers vehicle and to other peoples property. To prevent this common and costly accident the parking radar could be coupled to the brakes and if it detects anything in front of the car it would disable the gas pedal and activate the brakes.
I realise that there are some scenarios where you would need to run over someone or shunt a vehicle out of the way such as in a car jacking or terrorist incident but you could mount an emergency overide paddle on the steering wheel which could be used to overide the radar braking system during such an emergency.The paddle would return the radar brake system to the active state once it was released by the driver.
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What happens if it is accidentally triggered during normal use? Seems like it might cause an accident.
No Technology is perfect and thats what the Testing and Quality Assurance process/phase is for. The device would have an emergency overide paddle on the steering wheel but if this fails then yes you could be in trouble, but the same thing applys to any other system on your car, your brakes or steering could also fail.
A Bus driver in the UK was jailed for five years today for killing 5 people including some children when he stepped on the gas instead of the brake.This is going to keep happening until they put in a system to prevent it.See details below
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/4422040.stm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-07-17-elderly-usat_x.htm
I would probably get miffed enough to disconnect such a system if I had to override it every time I tried to park in my garage. Come to think of it, most parking lots would also require an override.
With regards to Hyenufs comment: yes the idea needs to be refined further to incorporate a distance&speed measuring and stopping distance computation function which would allow you to approach another car or the garage wall. If the speed is right it wont put the brakes on until it detects that you have just enough time to stop before hitting the object so if you are going very slowly in a parking lot or garage situation you will be able get very close to another object before the brakes come on.I can also see problems with the type of radar you would need to use, it would need to have the ability to detect humans and other non-metallic objects as well as vehicles.