Autonomous VW Trailer Assist tech can reverse park your caravan for you

Volkswagen is nearing the end of development of a new driver-assistance system that will be able to autonomously reverse and manoeuvre a vehicle when a trailer is attached – and we’ve given it a try.

The firm already offers a Trailer Assist function, which allows drivers to use the control for the electric door mirrors to accurately direct the car and trailer when reversing. But the next generation of this software takes things a step further by remembering the last 50 metres of driving and then retracing the car’s steps in reverse, all while making inputs to account for a trailer or caravan that’s being towed.

When we tried it for ourselves in a Volkswagen Passat, we were instructed to drive through a tight chicane that had been laid out with cones. After then putting the car in reverse and hitting a button that appeared on the infotainment screen, the car began steering itself, making corrections to avoid the trailer jackknifing while we used the throttle to control the speed.

Such an upgrade to the Trailer Assist system requires no additional hardware beyond that already fitted to production cars; to avoid bashing into anything, the next-generation Trailer Assist uses the ultrasonic sensors on the front and rear bumpers, which are typically part of the front and rear parking-assist system. 

Of course, this does mean that the car will not be able to ‘see’ what is beyond the trailer, so unless you're absolutely sure there’s no one or nothing around, another person should ideally stand watch outside the car to check the way is clear. If something does decide to walk into the path and range of the car’s ultrasonic sensors, this will ultimately engage the car’s autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system to avoid a collision.

Volkswagen remains tight-lipped about when we can expect the next-generation Trailer Assist technology to come to market. When we tested it out at the company’s proving grounds in Germany, we encountered no problems, suggesting that we could see the feature become available in new cars in the next couple of years. Having no need for additional hardware also frees up the possibility of such software coming as an over-the-air update for existing models, too.

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