[RKDinOKC]

My Cayenne has park assist. It starts beeping whenever I get within 18 inches of anything and there are lights on the dash and rear view mirror that tell how close and which corner. You can turn it off, but it comes right back on the next time you cycle thru park. The thing that is wrong with this system is that I've only had the Cayenne for a few months and I am already used to the park assist in a bad way. The beeping goes off any time the car gets close and you are traveling under 5 mph, every time I pull into or out of my garage, at drive thrus, and parking in parking lots. The only time I pay any attention is when pulling into the garage I know which light lights up to let me know I am in far enough to be able to open the rear hatch with the overhead garage door closed. Otherwise it is just annoying. So, basically after only a few months I don't even hear the warnings any more.

When I see those ads for cars with all the lane warning and auto stop before you hit a car right in front of you features and they save the driver that is not paying attention, all I can think of is people will start relying on it, then get used to it so they don't hear it any more, and become even WORSE drivers. It's okay for me to text or do anything other than pay attention while driving because my car will automatically stop before I hit something, Right?

So, from my observations and personal experiences, there are going to be a LOT more parking lot accidents. And even worse, more people not paying attention and running lights, going off the road, etc.

And I can already see it happening, I see more and more people putting along doing 30 in a 45 because they aren't paying attention and don't even seem to notice EVERYONE passing them.

And while I am ranting...

What is it with the I'm stranded people approaching me in the grocery store parking lot these days? Seems like once or twice a month I am approached by someone with an I'm stranded hard luck story needing money for gas to get back home. When my niece was in college she would stop by every so often on a Sunday evening and ask for gas money to get back to school in Kansas. I went to college and could understand that, and she always sent me money to pay me back. But these are grown @ss people. Some of them driving very nice vehicles too.