I think the lane keeping assist is hard to “test” because it is design to help if you drift and I do not think it is easy to knowing “drift” over the line. Although, the harsh redirection people have spoken about occurs when it is a solid line. It does not seem to do it on a broken line. It is more subtle when you drift over the broken lines. This could be because it is a possibility that you could cross the broken line to overtake but the car would not be programmed to expect someone to cross the solid line.
The park assist is an interesting one and is probably a thread in itself because I am confused by what it does and the participation of the driver. The manual suggests that you pick the spot and let the car do its thing with the driver being there to check for obstacles (should a pedestrian or similar get in the way). The one time I have used it so far did not feel like that is how it was in reality. The car did move it self into the first part of the manoeuvre but seemed very jerky in applying the brakes and made really awful noise as it approached the car behind (it had not hit anything). It done the same when it moved forward to straighten itself up. It was almost like it had marked where it wanted me to brake but had to do it itself because I hadn’t.
I've only tried the park assist once and I confess: I bottled out halfway through and took over myself. I think this probably says more about me than about the car, but part of the problem lies with the ambiguity of the system manual. It warns you to be ready to brake, but you don't know whether this is telling you that you have to do this part yourself, or whether it is there as part of the "you are always responsible for everything that happens on the road, don't come crying to us if it all goes wrong" spiel that permeates every active assist system. I can't think of any reason why it would not brake, but who wants to take the chance?
It would be nice to find somewhere to practice for half an hour without the pressure of other drivers trying to park, but I suspect that isn't practical for many people.
What all this confirms in my mind is something I have suspected for a while: full autonomy in vehicles is a very long way off indeed. Leaving aside the fact that the technology is nowhere near being able to cope with the complex driving situations we find ourselves in every day, laws on negligence and liability will take a long time to develop and, most of all, most people who have been driving for any length of time will find it very difficult to adjust to giving control of driving to the vehicle. Personally, I don't even want to; I enjoy driving. If I want to be driven somewhere I'll take a cab, it's a lot more sensible than forking out £30,000+ for a car to do it for me on the odd occasion.
