A driving game about the last five metres
3D Car Parking
Fifteen stages, from an open forecourt to a rainy parallel park beside moving traffic. A car that steers like a car, guide lines, parking sensors, and a score that rewards precision over speed.
About This Game
Most browser parking games cheat. The car slides like a hockey puck, it turns on the spot, and the bay accepts anything roughly in the neighbourhood. 3D Car Parking does the boring thing properly: the car pivots around its rear axle with a fixed wheelbase and a limited steering lock, so the back end follows a tighter line than the front and you have a genuine turning circle to plan around.
To make that fair rather than frustrating, it gives you the tools a real modern car gives you. Guide lines on the ground trace exactly where your corners will go if you hold the wheel where it is, and turn red where that path meets something solid. Parking sensors beep faster as either bumper closes in. Once you are near the bay, a small meter shows whether you are off-centre, too shallow or crooked, and the bay outline turns amber when you are inside the lines and straight enough to finish.
Fifteen stages escalate from an empty forecourt to a dark, wet kerbside with traffic going past. Along the way: bays you must reverse into nose-out, a forty-five degree echelon row, a basement aisle with no room to swing, a cone slalom, a single garage with a hand's width either side, three grades of parallel park, and car parks where other drivers will politely wait for you, but only if you are in their way. Nothing ends a run. Clip something and the bump is counted, the car is pushed back out, and you carry on with a lighter score.
The Fifteen Stages
Every stage is open from the start. The rule column says which way the car must face when it is parked.
| # | Stage | Setting | Rule | Par |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Open Forecourt | Wide bay, wide open | Either way | 0:22 |
| 02 | Nose Out | Reverse into a row | Nose out | 0:30 |
| 03 | Between the Lines | Supermarket aisle | Either way | 0:26 |
| 04 | Dead End | Walled lane, reverse only | Nose out | 0:24 |
| 05 | The Angle | Forty-five degree echelon | Nose in | 0:24 |
| 06 | Narrow Aisle | Basement, cars both sides | Either way | 0:40 |
| 07 | Cone Slalom | Chicane, then a bay | Either way | 0:34 |
| 08 | Parallel Park | Generous kerbside gap | Either way | 0:32 |
| 09 | Tight Squeeze | Kerbside at dusk, narrow road | Either way | 0:42 |
| 10 | Multi-Storey | Angled bay among pillars | Either way | 0:36 |
| 11 | The Garage | Single garage between houses | Nose in | 0:28 |
| 12 | Rush Hour | Retail park with traffic | Either way | 0:30 |
| 13 | Pillar Bay | Posts at the bay mouth | Nose out | 0:44 |
| 14 | Night Shift | Rain, dark, tight row | Nose out | 0:40 |
| 15 | The Final Bay | Night kerbside, pillars, traffic | Either way | 0:48 |
How Scoring Works
Every stage starts from 1000 points. The largest single swing is precision, which is why creeping into a good position beats arriving fast.
| Component | Effect |
|---|---|
| Base | 1000 points for finishing the bay |
| Precision | Up to +500, from how centred side to side, how centred front to back, and how straight you finish |
| Par time | +20 per second under par, −10 per second over, capped at 400 either way |
| Bump | −150 each, for any impact above walking pace |
| Cone | −50 each |
| Shuffling | −25 for each change between forward and reverse beyond the stage's free allowance |
Stars follow the total: 1600 or more earns three, 1250 earns two, 900 earns one. The clock only starts when you first touch the controls, so take as long as you like to look around first.
How To Play
- On a computer: ↑ ↓ or W S to drive and reverse, ← → or A D to steer, Space for the handbrake, C camera, G guides, M mute, R restart, P pause, F full screen. Drag the view with the mouse to look around.
- With a gamepad: left stick steers, right trigger drives, left trigger brakes and reverses, A is the handbrake.
- On a phone: drag the steering wheel on the left round like a real one, and hold GAS or REV on the right. Landscape is much easier.
- Watch which way the green arrow in the bay points. That is the way the bonnet must face when you finish.
- Get inside the lines, straighten up, and stop. The outline turns amber and the ring fills. Hold still for a moment and the stage is done.
Tips For Three Stars
- Precision outweighs the clock. A park two seconds slower but properly centred scores higher almost every time.
- Set your approach before you start reversing. Correcting halfway into the bay costs shuffles, and shuffles beyond the allowance cost points.
- Steer while rolling slowly, not while stopped. The wheel turns at a stopped car, but the car itself does not.
- For parallel bays: pull level with the front car, reverse on full lock until you are at about forty-five degrees, straighten, then swing the other way late.
- Use the Overhead camera for the final metre and the Bumper camera for nose-out bays. Judging a corner from behind the car is guesswork.
- The handbrake stops you dead. It is the cleanest way to lock in a good position before you drift back out of the lines.
Why This Exists
Parking is the part of driving nobody enjoys and everybody is quietly judged on. It is also almost pure spatial reasoning: you are estimating the position of a rectangle you cannot see the corners of, from inside it, in reverse.
A game is a cheap place to practise that. Not the pedals or the mirrors, which no screen can teach, but the geometry: how much room a turn actually needs, how late you can straighten, how the front swings wide when the back goes in. Get it wrong here and you lose a few points. Get it wrong in a car park and you lose a wing mirror.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is 3D Car Parking?
3D Car Parking is a free browser-based parking simulator with fifteen stages. It runs from an open forecourt through reverse bays, angled bays, a cone slalom, a narrow garage and three grades of parallel park, finishing with a rainy night-time squeeze beside moving traffic. Every stage is scored and rated out of three stars, and every stage is open from the start.
How is the score calculated?
Each stage starts from 1000 points. Precision adds up to 500 more, depending on how centred and how straight the car finishes in the bay. Every second under par adds 20 points and every second over costs 10, capped at 400 either way. Each bump costs 150, each cone 50, and every change between forward and reverse beyond the stage's free allowance costs 25. Three stars needs 1600 points.
How do I control the car?
On a computer, use the arrow keys or WASD to drive, reverse and steer, Space for the handbrake, C to change camera, G to toggle the guide lines, M to mute, R to restart and P to pause. Gamepads work too. On a phone or tablet, drag the steering wheel on the left and use the pedals on the right. The car turns around its rear axle like a real car, so steering only works while it is rolling.
What do the guide lines and sensor bars show?
The coloured lines on the ground trace where the corners of the car will go if you keep the wheel where it is, in whichever direction you are travelling, and a red bar appears where that path would hit something. The sensor bars at the bottom fill and the beeping speeds up as either bumper closes on an obstacle. Guides can be switched off with G or the GUIDES button, and the score is the same either way.
Is my progress saved?
Yes. Your best score, time and star rating for each stage, along with your sound, camera and guide settings, are kept in your own browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, and clearing your browser data clears your progress.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. It runs on modern mobile browsers including Chrome, Safari and Firefox, with a touch steering wheel and pedals built for thumbs. Landscape gives a far better view of the bay, and the full-screen button hides the browser bars where your browser allows it.
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