Given the increasing shortage of parking spaces in urban areas, many of us often end up driving around looking for safe parking spots on more than one occasion.
Over the past two decades, while cars have been getting technically rich with infotainment systems, sensors, and park-assist features, parking lots have largely lagged behind in terms of innovation and technological updates. However, things are set to change now. A report by Frost and Sullivan suggests that an investment of approximately $200 to $250 million is expected in this industry through 2019 and by 2020 there will be a million smart parking spaces available worldwide.
What makes ‘regular’ parking irksome?
After driving through bumper to bumper city traffic of the city, it is annoying to search for parking spots at places such as shopping malls, multiplexes, airports, and hospitals.
The common questions that come to drivers’ mind before using on-street parking include:
- How early should I leave my current location to find a vacant parking slot?
- Will it be difficult to find a parking slot for my car?
- Will I need to walk a long distance to my destination once the car is parked?
- Should I have a backup option for off-street parking?
The typical concerns while heading for off-street parking include:
- Will there be adequate space to park my car?
- How can I localize and navigate to a parking spot?
- How much additional parking charge will I have to pay for the time that I waste in finding a spot?
New-Tech has the solution?
Getting real-time updates on your mobile phone of available parking slots can go a long way in meeting user expectation, reducing costs, and improving overall efficiency. Smart parking solutions that help in navigating toward entry and exit points and provide payment details is the need of the hour. For on-street parking, the app can use GPS to receive the directions. For off-street parking, it can use sensors and devices installed in the parking lot, depending on where the vehicle to be parked is at the moment.
Furthermore, instead of driving to the lot and then receiving directions, users should be able to reserve their parking space even before leaving their location.
Although the market for parking in smart cities has been traditionally under-serviced, the potential for innovation in this field is huge. With our IoT capabilities and more than 20 years of experience in navigation-database generation, Cyient is devising custom solutions for technology-enabled parking. Our strategies in this domain include:
- Focus on building accurate parking maps with pathways, by incorporating data from heat maps, LiDAR surveys, and IoT
- Using sensors and enabling 3D visualization of parking slots to guide access and boarding points
- Enabling smart routing through integration with indoor positioning sensors including iBeacon and other mobile protocols
Using such approach and technologies as a viable, next-generation solution for efficient and quick parking of vehicles is now possible. At the Cyient innovation hub for smart cities, the spotlight is on creating safer, more efficient, and reliable solutions for navigation, transportation, and utilities. Learn more about our advanced navigation solutions.
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