I Am Very Tall

This is one of the things that seems so odd to me about strategy. Sometimes, there are advances that don't make it to the market until years down the line. I just found this today. It's a link describing the automatic parallel parking feature of new 2007 Lexus LS460 sedan. This is insanely amazing to me. And yet, according to CBS News, this feature has been around in Japan since 2003.

Here's a video of the whole thing in action. Keep an eye on the guys hands and watch how close the car gets in the back:

Why is this something that took 4 years to migrate to the US? If I really had to guess, it would probably be something along the lines of "lack of a market" and high production costs. Under this scenario, the manufacturing costs must have dropped by now to a more manageable level. Either that, or there are some terribly inadequate lines of communication between Toyota and the Lexus US operations.