Page 55 - Traffic Infra Tech Magazine

PARKING

and large, they prefer to manage their small-value transactions, QR codes are Anti-Trend: Self-Driving Cars
lives through apps. For many industries, more convenient for a consumer than
apps are increasingly becoming a using a credit card with per-transaction Finally, I promised to deliver a non-
must-have.” fees or carrying a pocketful of change. emerging technology trend. Here you
go: autonomous vehicles.
This is becoming true of parking. Parking hasn’t widely adopted this
We’re using our smartphones more – yet. It’s my opinion that self-driving
and more – is that really a surprise? But Trend 3: cars are not changing the world. Nor
what’s less noticeable about this trend Pics, or It Didn’t Happen will they tomorrow. Or even in the
is that the smartphone is replacing five years. Futurists, city planners
hardware and infrastructure that have If a picture is worth a thousand and politicians have jumped on the
been popular for years. words, then a video must be worth bandwagon because it’s a great topic
a million. Cameras are everywhere, with lots of promise, magically solving
Paper maps are now apps. Your phone from surveillance to selfies; now your our self-inflicted conundrum of too
book is an app. You watch TV without image can unlock your phone. Image- many cars sharing the road.
your TV. Boarding pass? Newspaper? recognition technologies have reached
Music player? Book? Wallet? No need the tipping point in many industries, The reality is that this technology is
… there’s an app for that. including parking. not yet ready for prime-time. Not even
And in the parking industry, we’re Probably the least surprising aspect of close. The best we have today is Level-3
autonomy (“conditional automation”),
seeing the same thing; i.e., less cameras in parking is the ever-growing and that’s limited to adaptive cruise
dependency on hardware and more on popularity of license plate recognition control and lane-tracking in daytime,
the user’s smartphone. (LPR). The image processing has become good weather, and on highways where
The parking meter is the first to come excellent, working remarkably well even the flow of traffic is one-way. (I’m
to mind, when pay-by-cell provides more on plates with strange backgrounds or prepared to argue with anyone who
user flexibility (expiration reminder, horribly colored characters. claims, “My Tesla already does that and
extended time). Some places have Just about every parking manager more …”)
replaced meters altogether, with pay- that I talk to says that LPR is either part What North Americans really want is
by-cell as the replacement. of their operation today or will be in the a higher level of self-driving that works
Other hardware may not be near future. The license plate used to be both in the city and on the highway,
disappearing completely, but the need a secondary credential behind a permit and in inclement weather, too.
is reduced and the function evolves. A or spitter-ticket, but now it’s become
user’s app can act as a parking pass primary for many parking operations. Demonstrations of the Level-4
(credential) in a garage, potentially Cameras are also counting cars, autonomy most valuable to consumers,
replacing dozens of antennas and tracking space occupancy and or complete Level-5 autonomy (“Look,
thousands of RFID tags with simpler availability, and watching for safety Ma, no steering wheel!”), are thus far a
barcode readers or Bluetooth sensors. issues (such as a car parked in front of contrived, though admittedly impressive,
publicity stunt. But we’re many years
One last example: QR codes. (You a walkway), providing notifications for away from mass production, and many
remember QR codes – those weird, usual conditions. Artificial intelligence more years from this impacting parking
square, two-dimensional barcodes.) and pattern-matching software converts to a notable degree.
Quick Response codes have the potential images to data with surprising accuracy
to save us from the PCI/EMV/P2PE — data that can then be used in the Technology moves forward not at a
torture that comes with credit cards parking office or shared with parkers to constant speed, but rather accelerating
these days. And while QR codes never help them make better decisions before as things that were hard-to-do yesterday
really took off in North America, they hunting an empty space. are easier today.
are tremendously popular in China and Motion-sensing cameras do an The parking industry has traditionally
other places where mobile payments even more impressive job, observing been a late-adopter of new technology,
and micro-payments are much more pedestrians in crosswalks, analyzing but this is definitely changing. I can
prevalent than North America. QR vehicle flow, dynamically managing confidently say that technology change
Codes for payment are secure, don’t traffic lights. This used to be science is more rapid today than at any time
require any specialized equipment, and fiction; now it’s technology fact. in my last 25 years in parking. And I’m
can be easily implemented into an app. Parking is just starting to embrace these looking forward to the next 25!
For parking operations with frequent, technologies. Source: Parking Today

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