Automatically adjustable snowthrower chute

A snowthrower comprising:

• a body;
• a chute rotatable relative to the body among a plurality of chute positions, wherein the chute is configured to discharge snow from the snowthrower;
• a motor for rotating the chute;
• a chute position detector configured to detect a current chute position;
• a GPS sensor configured to detect a snowthrower position;
• and
• an electronic control unit configured to, in a target tracking operating mode, control the motor to move the chute to an appropriate chute position to direct the discharged snow at a designated target in response to a comparison of the snowthrower position detected by the GPS sensor and the designated target.

A method of operating a chute of a snowthrower with a chute position control system, the method comprising:

• setting a preferred chute bearing for a chute of a snowthrower with a user input device and storing the preferred chute bearing in a memory device of an electronic control unit;
• calculating a current chute bearing with the electronic control unit;
• determining with the electronic control unit if the preferred chute bearing is possible;
• if the preferred chute bearing is possible, calculating the bearing error with the electronic control unit and then rotating the chute with a chute motor to eliminate the bearing error;
• and
• if the preferred chute bearing is not possible, rotating the chute with the chute motor toward the preferred chute bearing until the chute reaches an angular travel limit.