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We’ve all been there – adventuring blindly around an unfamiliar town centre desperate to find a parking space and trying, and probably failing, not to completely lose it with the back-seat drivers giving you directions.
Well, a new innovation from mapping company Here may provide a solution.
Here will soon be able to help users find parking spaces, after it announced a new digital map service which gives real time information about on-street parking spaces and roadworks, as well as traffic conditions, hazards and road signs.
The data will give users parking availability predictions for each street and even provide details about payment options. Owners of cars with Here’s Open Location Platform will not have to sign up or do anything to transmit or receive the data.
The service, which will roll out next year, will use information provided by Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz cars fitted with on-board sensors. The sensors will record vehicle speed, location and direction as well as sharp braking and fog light activation, while forward-facing cameras will provide footage of road hazards.
Here says the service will expand to other makes of car in the future.
It also believes the technology could one day be used to support self-driving vehicles, a concept already trialled by Google and Uber. The video below shows how Here’s vision of automated vehicles works.
“Here believes that industry collaboration is essential to address the major challenges faced by road users everywhere,” said Here CEO Edzard Overbeek. “What we are seeing today is the technology and automotive industries coming together to create services that will elevate the driving experience for billions.”
