Parking has significantly changed in the past decades, and so has the amount of parking space available. However, parking experiences have significantly changed over the years and are expected to change even more in the upcoming years.
There are more cars than ever before and even more people living in urban areas, so the only way to effectively park many vehicles at once is to use a given space effectively. This means “stacking” cars on top of each other or having an entire building that can be used for parking.
Let’s not wait any further because, in this article, we will discuss what parking management will look like in the next decade.
What will parking management be like in the next decade?
Increased parking space
As the future brings technological innovations to the table, parking will need to be driven by innovative solutions in order to meet demand, supply, and consumer needs with the support of digital technologies. Therefore, the success of parking will depend on how well you manage to face today’s challenges and the changes that are made to our everyday industry.
In particular, important and new opportunities will materialize around space management. For example, in-depth data analytics and telematics can allow an easy process that will match parking spaces with the vehicle size and more. This includes better security features, automated parking that uses car lifts or sensors to place them on top of each other, vehicle servicing, maintenance, and even electric charging stations.
These features aren’t standard across every parking space worldwide, primarily due to the fact that these types of technologies haven’t become really common across the world but are expected to arrive at every parking space until the next decade.
A common space management feature uses sensors to detect vehicles entering and leaving a parking sector. The sensors allow the system to calculate important data and communicate real-time availability digitally, allowing drivers to seek free spaces and reduce traffic time.
For instance, some cities across the United States have started to use street sensors to use them through mobile apps and allow drivers to find available real-time parking spaces and even parking garages around their local area.
Payment methods
Unlike old traditional methods of paying for parking, where you give the person responsible for the payment, modern systems are entirely changing the way we pay at the parking lot. Modern systems allow payments to be made electronically or through a parking lot application. This is the direction we are heading, so it’s expected to become even more common in the future.
For instance, four years ago, San Francisco launched a demand-responsive pricing program that manages public parking electronically. For every parking space and garage in the streets, an electronic payment method was made through mobile devices, which allows drivers to remotely add their parking time and show them how much they will pay during that time period. This is helpful since nobody needs to waste any time and can directly pay for the parking and leave once they return.
Parking management software
The world’s future lies in the hands of technology and software. This is why we will see and are seeing a significant increase in parking management software. The software informs you that you can transform your car park overnight and whenever you wish.
There are different types of parking management software, such as intelligent PMS, general parking lot management software, EPS, car park control software, and more.
Comparatively, traditional parking companies have always struggled to redefine their business models and have tried to create services for their current customers to help them stay in the near future. Still, you can say farewell to traditional methods.
IoT
The internet of things continues to be a trending topic for business leaders and tech geeks. You may be thinking that IoT doesn’t have much to do with the future of parking, but that isn’t exactly true. IoT nails it when it comes to the type of potential it has to bring innovations to the tech world, especially parking.
IoT, in short, represents a network of connected devices and other physical objects that can communicate and share information with one another. While IoT has been used in parking technology before, it has become increasingly popular over the years. Especially from the excellent benefits it offers, its popularity will increase soon enough.
For example, sensor-based information systems included with IoT will help increase traffic and parking jams, reducing CO2 emissions in the long term. But, nevertheless, it can help manage parking spaces and reduce any useless waste efficiently.
Data analytics
Modern IT infrastructure and online data ensure real-time tracking and are an increasingly effective method for using parking spaces. Data analytics are used together with other technological capabilities such as telematics, IoT apps, blockchains, and mobile payments.
This type of data allows applications to provide users with details of the parking spaces they are trying to occupy.
Automated parking garages
Even though it isn’t common in every parking space globally, automated parking garages are expected to be the future. Furthermore, even though many may think they are complicated, automated parking garages are more accurate than you may think.
The only time you waste with automated parking garages is the amount of time you need for the machine to load your vehicle. However, this issue is expected to be eliminated soon in the near future. However, it only takes the system somewhere around two minutes to load the vehicles in the parking lot, even when many cars are waiting in line. Comparatively, this is much faster than traditional methods.
Many parking lots have the potential to store thousands of vehicles within one building. However, according to a study, future automated garages are expected to have the capacity to store thousands of vehicles. They will be able to store up to 50% more vehicles than now. These types of systems will park cars based on their height and weight characteristics.
Parking robots
Now, you may think this isn’t possible but think again. Robots aren’t here to steal our jobs but to make them easier. For example, these robots can drop your vehicle off anywhere you want them to and the places you have reserved your parking spot. Additionally, when we compare robots to humans, we can conclude that they are much better prepared than humans and better at doing repetitive tasks.
In fact, according to a study, the margin of error in AI was much lower than in humans. So even though parking robots aren’t ubiquitous now, they may be the primary source of parking in the next decade. Let’s find out!
Cost management
Parking is an exciting industry due to the cost of real estate and infrastructure. Unfortunately, Parking space isn’t anything cheap to build or buy, and it can cost anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to millions.
However, efficiently managing your resources through automation and robotics could help reduce upfront costs much faster than you would in traditional methods. This includes redistributing costs and risk, creating a platform for new investors, and automating contracts.
Remote parking and sensors
You may or may not have heard about remote parking and parking sensors before. It includes a vehicle’s capability to fully park on its own without any human intervention. This parking method was initially introduced in the early 2000s when cars used sensors and a backup camera to determine if there was enough space to park the car.
However, recent technological innovations allow you to reverse your car and exit your parking space without worrying if you’ll bump into the car next to you or not.
Secondly, we have remote parking, which is the ability of a car to park on its own. Before, remote parking needed some human intervention, but that isn’t the case anymore in some newer high-end car models. Many high-end car models like Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, and other popular models can fully park on their own without needing to press anything.
Wrapping it up
That’s all for this article. This is it on how parking management will look like in the next decade. With massive innovations going on and cars becoming more tech-controlled, parking management will completely change. Say goodbye to old traditional methods and having to pay via contact.
Moreover, the tech world is taking control of how we are working, but there isn’t anything bad about it. It is only making the world an easier place for us and connecting us to each other. How good does it get when we come to a time that will only require us to do everything without any human contact?
