Patent ID: 7512495

Claim:
A method for use in a system in a vehicle, the system including a display element, the vehicle having front, back, left and right sides thereof, the method comprising: allowing a user to set a first desired lateral separation between the left side of the vehicle and a left object outside the vehicle, and a second desired lateral separation between the right side of the vehicle and a right object outside the vehicle; showing, on the display element, a representation of the vehicle and representations of the left and right objects outside the vehicle, separations from the representation of the vehicle from the respective representations of the left and right objects indicating the first and second desired lateral separations, respectively; sensing one or more detectable objects alongside the vehicle; determining a first lateral separation between the left side of the vehicle and one or more sensed objects, and a second lateral separation between the right side of the vehicle and one or more sensed objects; and providing an alert when at least one the first and second lateral separations is less than a respective one of the first and second desired lateral separations.