Fight for your right to park
Can’t find a free parking space? You’re not the only one facing this problem. Connected parking concepts should make you more relaxed. But with so many apps and concepts around, it might be hard to find a good ‘fit’.
For drivers, finding a parking space in the city seems to be a growing issue. According to a study done by INRIX, a company that works on mobility solutions, we spend on average 41 hours per year looking for parking spot.
The market for smart parking, therefore, is one the move. And everyone seems to be designing their own solutions. Bosch is testing community-based parking: the driver announces a parking spot; other vehicles automatically report free parking spaces.
How they do it? By using sensors, that are installed as parking assistance anyway, without the necessity of installing additional hardware. The sensors detect when the roadside is blocked and when it is free. It send this information to the cloud of the respective car manufacturer.
From there, the supposed opening is sent to Bosch and paired with city maps to identify drive ways and no-parking zones. The car manufacturer sends the information back to the driver, where it’s displayed.
The challenge: this all needs to happen real-time and preferably apps should include a parking forecast. Individual adjustments can be made if the car is equipped with a trailer, for example, and needs a larger opening.
Bosch is aiming for a serial production this year, but hasn’t revealed yet for which car brands this will be the case. However, there has been a pilot project with Bosch and Daimler since 2016.
The new Mercedes S-Class already collects data for the service by Bosch. Luxury cars alone cannot collect sufficient data to paint an exact picture of available parking space, however.
Therefore, Bosch aims to implement their service worldwide, brand-free. Tests have already been run with manufacturers in many European cities. Whether customers will be charged for the service is up to the manufacturer.
Siemens working on self-learning street light sensors
Siemens, on the other hand, is counting on adding hardware. Not in the car, but in or on street lighting. The company is planning to fit street lights with radio sensors in the near future. Each of those sensors could detect up to seven parking space at the same time and inform drivers through a smart phone app or navigation system.
Siemens calls this an infrastructure-based sensor network. The Siemens Mobility Innovation department tested their intermodal parking space management system on a one kilometer stretch of the Bundesallee in Berlin in 2015 and 2016.
Their system is supposed to inform drivers about empty parking space near their destination and make suggestions for using public transportation to cover the remainder of the distance. The system will recognize the parking behavior of drivers and can make forecasts on when a parking space will become available.
The street light sensors by Siemens could act as a kind of digital traffic waren; not only could the system detect empty parking space, it could also report parking offenders to the authorities. Operating using micowave technology instead of photographs, it would not violate the privacy of drivers. And since Siemens’ sensors are maintenance-free, they are not that much concerned about the operating costs.
Who are Siemens’ clients? The municipalities and cities. The technology would be affordable without the need of an extensive roll-out or installation. There already is a lot of interest in Europe, but in particular abroad (Dubai, China).
Startups offer their own solutions
It’s not just big companies that are working on parking solutions. Startups, such as Ampido or ParkU rent out private parking space. A different approach is seen in Evopark. In cooperation with other users, you can find a parking space by using an app and entering the parking space with an RFID card. The bill will arrive at the end of the month.
Parking lot operator APOCA, together with Volkswagen, are also heading in that direction. Their technology allows users to enter a parking space, exit, buy a ticket and receive a bill without touching a button. Volkswagen is considering to offer this service to customers in more than 80 different German cities as a pilot.
Autonomous driving adds to more excitement in the parking discussion. Bosch and Mercedes have teamed up for a pilot project in their Stuttgart-based museum. Every Tuesday and Thursday, the public is able to experience what parking in the future may look like in the form of cars finding their way into the parking garage automatically, using camers and sensors.
The different approaches to this development are definitely interesting. However, a uniform standard and mass-compatible systems, across car brands, are needed for mass adoption. Until then, we will need to keep searching for parking spaces the ‘old-fashioned’ way.
Learn more about testing, inspection and certification for the automotive industry.
https://www.dekra-product-safety.com/en/fight-your-right-park
