Fact Check

Is This Car Using a Rear 5th Wheel to Parallel Park?

The idea of putting an extra wheel on a car to make it easier to parallel park has been around since at least the 1950s.

Published Aug. 23, 2019

Claim:
A video shows a car using a rear fifth wheel to parallel park.

On Aug. 13, 2019, the Facebook page Earthquake shared a video that supposedly showed a car using a fifth wheel to parallel park. The Times of India presented this same footage as if it were genuine in a YouTube video entitled "Amazing: How to park a car in 10 seconds":

This video was accompanied by the text: "We all face parking woes in our daily lives. But all that could be history soon. This driver seems to have found a novel way. It seems to be working wonders for this driver."

This is not a genuine video of a car parallel parking with the use of a unique fifth wheel. This video actually showcases computer-generated images (CGI) and video-editing techniques, not mechanical feats.

The video first went viral when it was shared on TitTok by user @Tiktokaraba. This account has shared several other similar videos, some of which are a bit easier to recognize as digital creations:

While the video posted Aug. 13 doesn't actually show a car parallel parking with the aid of a unique fifth wheel, a similar parking system was patented in the 1950s. Here's a video of the "Park Car":

Sources

Old Cars Weekly.   "Car of the Week: ‘Self-Parking’ 1953 Packard Cavalier."     29 November 2012.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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