I love a good gimmick in a car, something with a fairly limited or seemingly unnecessary use case that you don’t see very often throughout the industry. However, Hyundai Motor Group’s “Smart Park” never really captured my imagination. I always just looked at it as a pointless piece of technology that the company could charge extra money for, nothing more than a silly little thing to show your friends.
At least, I felt this way until very recently when I was testing out a 2025 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, a rather excellent midsize sedan that’ll make you question why other automakers aren’t making cars this good. Being a fully loaded Hyundai (for a total price of just a tick over $39,000), it was equipped with Smart Park, HMG’s system that lets you remotely move your car forward or back to get in and out of tight spaces. I’m sure you remember the commercials that first started airing a few years back.
Full Disclosure: Hyundai lent me this Sonata Hybrid with a full tank of gas to do with as I pleased for a week on the West Coast.
I never thought it would be particularly useful. I mean, how often is someone parking so close to you that you cannot get in and out of your car? We live in a society. Surely, no one would do such a thing. Welp, I just so happened to be driving the Sonata around Los Angeles, a place void of a society. I was parked in an underground garage and someone in a Mazda 3 parked just a couple of inches from my door.
Here’s what happened
Maybe in my younger, more svelt years, I’d have been able to squeeze in, but after a few too many chicken parm heroes, there was no chance my gunt was going to make it between these two cars. I thought I was well and truly boned. I’d have to wait for this person to come get their car, and who knows how long that would take. Luckily for me, I had Smart Park, also known as Remote Smart Parking Assist — its full Christian name.
Hyundai’s Smart Park: Actually Useful! pic.twitter.com/eJlKdrGGDk
— Andy Kalmowitz (@AndyKalmowitz) March 3, 2025
To prime the system, all you have to do is hit the lock button to make sure the car is, well, locked, and then hold the remote start button to start the car’s powertrain. Once the car turns on, you just press either the forward or backward buttons on the key fob. From there, my red Sonata backed out of the spot gingerly with the reverse lights illuminated. The second I let go of the button, the car immediately slammed on the brake and activated its hazards. After that, I just got in the car and drove away. It’s a really impressive, simple process.
Because of this, I’ve got a newfound appreciation for Smart Park and its use cases. It would be great if something like this starts popping up on cars across the industry. As our cars and ourselves continue to get wider, creating a system that can help our vehicles squeeze into tight spaces is a brilliant idea.
