Car in Australia Parks Itself

Heard the one about the car in Australia that rolled out of a car park, across a road and down a driveway before forcing itself into a garage, where it remained for 17 days, provoking fears of a new wave of car theft in Adelaide?

Why, it’s the self-parking car; the car with more brains, balls and self-awareness than your typical driver. Michael Knight’s KITT in other words.

Only of course, it’s not: it’s a farcical mix of driver error and serendipity. What actually happened is this. An unnamed driver, new to his car, parked on an incline, leaving the car in the wrong gear. The car then gently rolled out of the car park, somehow made it across the road and into the driveway opposite and by force of momentum eased itself under the roller doors of the garage at the end of the drive.

Police put the pieces together after the owners of the garage returned home from holiday and noticed damage to the garage door. Shame, we much preferred it when the car seemed to have vanished into thin air.

(Image: Rex Features)