GUIDED COACHING FOR VEHICLE POSITIONING TO OPERATE AN AUTOMATED HITCHING FEATURE

A system for assisting in aligning a vehicle for hitching with a trailer includes an imager outputting image data of a field of view to the rear of the vehicle and a controller identifying at least one of a trailer or a coupler of the trailer within the image data. The controller further determines that the at least one of the trailer or the coupler is outside of a specified area relative to the vehicle and outputs an instruction for movement of the vehicle determined to position the one of the trailer or the coupler within the specified area. Upon determining that the at least one of the coupler and the trailer is within the specified area, the coupler outputs a steering signal to the vehicle to cause the vehicle to steer to align a hitch ball of the vehicle with the coupler.