I will actually say without lying that I love using the key fob parking assist to pull the car out of my garage. This action makes me feel like James Bond every morning . However, using the parking space finder and assist for parallel parking has to be the most frustrating tech on my incredible car . I know how to parallel park but I am always fascinated by automation tech. In addition, as a tech lover, I am always obsessed with figuring out how this feature was intended to be used ideally.
Day in and day out as I slow down the car ride to pick up my daughter from school, I normally start the smart space finder. When I try to parallel park, the car either wants to back into the spot or blinks off immediately as I try to select the spot and start holding the button. In rare times, it somehow refuses to see a huge gap no matter how slowly I go. This feature is a complete failure in terms of implementation when there is a queue of automobiles waiting for you to park in real-world scenarios.
Even so, I practiced parking between my second car and the garbage can after setting it up. It is only around 50% successful at identifying the place and enabling me to turn on the help feature in a safe, stress-free environment. After maybe ten tries, I never succeeded in applying the function in the actual world.
In my case, I have never once been able to get that function to work and have since given up.
I always use the key fob to back the car out of a space when a car is parked so close I couldn’t get into the driver’s side door. It took me a minute to remember how to do it but that was nice.
As a regular driver, I feel like the issue has gone too extreme, but generally, you have to go slowly, with the blinker on and the parking assist armed, far enough before parking that the front camera detects the corner of the rear car, and the rear camera detects the corner of the front car.
In addition, you need to arm the parking assist well before you are even close to the spot you want to park at for convenience.
A fun fact is that if you are used to parallel or back-in parking the old-fashioned way already, will find it painfully slow.
One tip I found useful from your comment is to turn your blinker on. This is the one thing I haven’t been doing because I feel always embarrassed to announce to the car line that I am trying to park when I have no confidence that I will be able to get it parked
I will give the blinker a try though in my next ride.
This is the 3rd car I have had equipped with the technology. I am ashamed to say that I have used it once on each of the cars. I believe in myself because I can park always better and way quicker without it so never used it again on any of them, including the EV6 which I recently acquired.
I at once use the “James Bond” feature whenever I feel though, it is super useful in certain situations.
I think maybe I am lucky because I have always managed to consistently get it to find a space and park there. The secret is driving slowly, with the blinker on, with the parking spot finder engaged, and fairly close to the row of cars. Like, closer than you would normally be comfortable with.
I drove the car for almost a year but surprisingly, I have never used it even once. I will admit that, even if it wasn’t slow at what it does I would rather give that feature up for a useful feature. For example, heated seats in the rear instead of this would be a better use of resources.
I surely miss the parking assistant of my VW. I fail to understand how KIA can get the software right in so many ways, but for something as simple as parking they get it wrong.
I forgot how to use it because I rarely used it during my prime days as a “James Bond” driver. I recently wanted to try it again the other day after a year and completely never remembered how to activate it. As long as the car is moving I don’t think I have an issue.
. However, using the parking space finder and assist for parallel parking has to be the most frustrating tech on my incredible car 
. I know how to parallel park but I am always fascinated by automation tech. In addition, as a tech lover, I am always obsessed with figuring out how this feature was intended to be used ideally.