Track your car in the basement of Singapore Car Parks

Ideation #9

A friend of mine asked me this question through Facebook. Whether can I make an app that locates your car which is parked in the multi-storey basement car park. This is a common problem especially in Singapore malls, it’s a bloody maze. Which requires you to memorise the special code like LL11 followed by colours and which level you are at.

I believed there are couple of apps out there that records all the necessary info. Well, I even did one myself 3 to 4 years ago for a mall app I was designing for fun. Of course, there are simpler solution like using built-in camera or notes app to remind yourself where you’ve parked.

So how can we effortlessly track our car in the basement car park of Singapore’s building? Let’s not start with designing the app but look at what we currently have in here.

Sensors in the car park lot

Fairly common in most malls in Singapore and I unknowingly loving it. There is a light that accompany along side with the sensor. It will display green if is available and red once the lot is occupied. So most motorist will have their neck stretched as they were looking for that precious green light when the car park is packed. In some car parks, they have displays showing which area and level has number of lots left.

The In-Vehicle Unit (IU) and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP)

The IU is a mandatory device installed in every Singapore registered vehicle. The Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) is introduce to be a system to charged motorists when they use the road during peak hours, based on a pay-as-you-use principle. It uses a dedicated short-range radio communication system to deduct ERP charges from CashCards and other Contactless E-Payment Application Standard (CEPAS) compliant cards. These are inserted in the IU of vehicles before each journey. Each time vehicles pass through a gantry when the system is in operation, the ERP charges will be automatically deducted.

The Electronic Parking System (EPS)

was introduce as well. Using the same tech but scaling it down for modern car parks. This way, all motorist can park their vehicles with ease but they constantly need to check if their card has enough stored cash value. Alternatively, you can always use a CEPAS compliant credit card that will be charged to you monthly.

Last few years, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) are looking new ways to develop the next generation of road pricing system, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology, to be completed by 2020 (wow sounds like the future but it’s only 4 years away from now). This way the LTA doesn’t need to build the physical ERP gantries and more ways to charge motorist in this rising population of vehicle. If they do this right, they are many ways to make full use of this system. Other than charging for road pricing, they could track hit and run incident, speeding, allow motorist to track their vehicles at outdoors using GPS (like Find my iPhone) and so on! And I believe this will be an additional components added to the current IU device, if not the EPS system won’t work.

What if…

Every individual indoor car park lot are installed with a sensor similar to the ERP and EPS gantries that uses short-range radio comms. With this installed, the sensor will capture the id of the vehicle from the IU when it was parked in the lot, it then send and store the details in the server. Hence without the need for the motorist to note down where they’ve parked their car once they alight. Only to retrieve it when you happen to forget them. So how are the owner locate their cars now?

Notifications

Once you’ve parked your vehicle after 10 minutes, it will send a notification to your phone with the app you installed and registered earlier. Of course you can opt for SMS notification if you are still using a feature phone. This way, you doesn’t even need to launch any app to see where your car is being parked. Once you’re getting back to your car, simply turn on your smartphone screen, swipe down to see your notification. Building management could even send a friendly message to the owner to move his car? Provided this system comply to Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).

Indoor Map

What happens when you’re in a gigantic car park that you feel like it’s a #&@!ing maze? It may pin point the car location in the basement, but based on today’s technology and how people use their phone (most people doesn’t turn on their bluetooth all the time, which eliminates the use of bluetooth beacon), it’s hard to pin point the user’s location in the basement. My solution for now is just indicating a prominent symbol or alphabets that tally between the physical space and the map of the basement. Usually around the lift or escalator where it’s the triggering point for people to start thinking where they’ve parked their vehicle.

Yes, it’s an expensive project for such a small feature. But the cost of the hardware will eventually fall over the years. Just like how the early ERP gantries started in 1998, followed by a lightweight version that is being used by the EPS. Why not build it into even smaller version and low cost for parking? Looking at the big picture in the future, it actually helps the police to track down vehicle if this is implemented in the future together with GNSS. Vehicle that is trying to hide away from the GPS location.

This idea is practically based on all existing technology in Singapore. Who knows what the future of technology can do?