Skip to main content

BMW to launch ParkNow mobile parking service in San Francisco

At a press conference yesterday with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, BMW Group board member Dr Ian Robertson announced the upcoming launch of ParkNow, an innovative mobile parking solution that is a joint venture with Urban Mobility, and provided new details about DriveNow, a premium car-sharing service which features a fleet of BMW ActiveE all-electric vehicles. San Francisco serves as the initial US market for each service.
August 21, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
At a press conference yesterday with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, 6419 BMW Group board member Dr Ian Robertson announced the upcoming launch of ParkNow, an innovative mobile parking solution that is a joint venture with Urban Mobility, and provided new details about DriveNow, a premium car-sharing service which features a fleet of BMW ActiveE all-electric vehicles. San Francisco serves as the initial US market for each service.

ParkNow, which will be available to drivers beginning in September, is an online mobile parking service that enables users to pay for parking in advance, with guaranteed access and clearly defined rates, based on their personal preferences. Customers can search for parking using ParkNow’s mobile app or website, reserve, pay and then be navigated directly to the parking facility, reducing time spent looking for parking, as well as emissions. There are currently 14 ParkNow locations in and around San Francisco piloting the system. Four ParkNow partner operators, ProPark America, Towne Park, ABM Parking and California Parking, will launch over 100 additional ParkNow locations in the coming weeks.

DriveNow which launched in June in San Francisco is a flexible, premium car-sharing programme offering the opportunity to drive BMW’s first all-electric vehicle, the BMW ActiveE with zero emission driving. The fleet of 70 ActiveE vehicles is located at eight DriveNow Stations around San Francisco, with two additional stations in Palo Alto and at the San Francisco International Airport coming soon. Through a partnership with California-based 4824 Coulomb Technologies’ ChargePoint network, drivers can easily locate a nearby charging station if they need to top-off during the course of their rental, which has no time limit. Parking and charging is free at DriveNow Stations.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Panasonic to launch autonomous cart ride-share in 2021
    November 6, 2019
    Panasonic is to launch a ride-sharing service of autonomous electric carts in Japan in 2021 for small towns and other ‘confined’ areas. A report by The Mainichi says the company is now using four carts to transport more than 14,000 employees around its headquarters in Osaka Prefecture ahead of the commercial launch. The carts operate at 20 km/h per hour on a 2.4km loop around the premises, which is around 468,000 m2 in size. An spokesperson is quoted as saying during a press conference: "We are not tryin
  • Monkey Parking app ‘illegal and predatory’
    June 25, 2014
    San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has issued an immediate cease-and-desist demand to Monkey Parking, a mobile peer-to-peer bidding app that enables motorists to auction off the public parking spaces their vehicles occupy to nearby drivers. A letter issued by Herrera's office to Paolo Dobrowolny, CEO of the Rome, Italy-based tech start-up, cites a key provision of San Francisco's Police Code that specifically prohibits individuals and companies from buying, selling or leasing public on-street pa
  • WSP brings mobility to market
    October 4, 2022
    Transportation agencies can benefit from bringing numerous services together, WSP says
  • Brooklyn eyes Bogota’s BRT system
    June 17, 2016
    David Crawford considers the increased interest in bus rapid transit and looks that the latest trends. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is gaining an increasingly high profile in the US public transport agenda, for two main reasons. One is the potential for ‘trains on wheels’ to save substantially on installation costs as compared with other modes such as underground metros or light-rail transit. Another, highlighted in the case of New York City, is the value of having a rapid surface-based alternative available whe