Parking & Access Control

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland’s robot car Marilyn is parking autonomously - 100m away from its driver. The trial in Tampere uses the Internet of Things (IoT) and is expected to allow vehicles to park closer together without fear of collisions at airports and shopping centres. Johan Scholliers, project manager at VTT, says the technology will also help reduce congestion in parking areas.

North America-based Parkmobile has introduced a new app feature that shows on-street parking availability making it easier for ParkmobilePro members to find a parking spot in over 100 cities across the United States. The feature is intended to help drivers navigate to areas with more open parking and avoid areas where there is none. It also comes with real-time parking and reservation capabilities. In addition, members will receive discounted transaction fees, free roadside assistance as well as offers

Belgium company EIT Digital says its MyCarLot solution will help local governments plan parking policies and provide better services. The system is currently operating in Rennes, France, and uses real-time and forecasted parking data to address special needs like disabled parking or electric vehicles. MyCarLot is intended to help users find available parking lots in advance based on personal preferences and using predictive algorithms and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. Maurizio Griva

Amsterdam’s Here Technologies has partnered with fabless semiconductor company Decawave to develop a solution that tracks assets in indoor environments. The partnership believes the technology could be applied to automated valet parking for driverless vehicles. The product will feature Decawave’s ultra-wideband (UWB) chipset technology to track objects and people with a 10cm-level precision in indoor environments. UWB signals are intended to provide accurate positioning capabilities that can be harnessed

Swarco Traffic will supply Variable Message Signs (VMS) to improve parking and ease congestion for those visiting the UK town of Taunton in Somerset. Ten signs will be installed at strategic locations to inform drivers of local traffic restrictions. The project will be delivered alongside local consultants WSP and teams from Taunton Deane Borough Council and West Somerset Council. In addition, Swarco Traffic will install loop detectors around the park and ride centres to count the vehicles. These signs

Parking and transit technology company Passport has made two new appointments. Meredith Cage will be vice president of product, while Duncan Mapes becomes vice president of engineering. Cage was previously senior vice president of product strategy and analytics at clinical surveillance company PeraHealth and led global product and marketing initiatives at Johnson & Johnson. Mapes was most recently platforms and development operations senior technology manager at the Bank of America, where he worked on a

Highways company Island Roads will install 40 energy-efficient Parkeon Strada Rapide parking terminals as part of a system upgrade across the Isle of Wight. The solar-powered technology is intended to replace 139 of Island Roads’ terminals by 2020. David Wallis, Island Roads’ operations and maintenance manager, says: “The new meters will be more reliable than the models they are replacing, some of which were nearing the end of their serviceable life and required an increasing amount of maintenance.”

An investment from Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Westly Group has completed smart parking technology firm Cleverciti Systems' $15m funding round, supporting the latter’s development of smart city environments. Westly Group is a utility, energy and sustainability company – which means the partnership will provide Cleverciti with access to international utility companies whose utility poles are intended to become future data hubs for smart cities. Thomas Hohenacker, Cleverciti founder and

Parkeon and Cale, which have merged to create Flowbird Urban Intelligence, will showcase a range of parking and associated technologies at Pakex. The event takes place at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, UK, on 13-14 June. At the exhibition, a module called Park & Breathe will be on display that can be placed in a cloud-enabled terminal to create an environmental monitoring capability. The solution also allows the terminal to take payment. In addition, the company will show how the check-in, check-out

Parking.Brussels (P.B) has launched a new app to help guide motorists to car parks by integrating data into existing route planning applications such as Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze. Users in the region can also utilise a custom parking option for requirements such as charging stations for electric vehicles, bicycle parking or proximity to public transport. The application contains over 24,000 parking spaces, spread over 58 parking lots and can indicate whether certain car parks are free or full. Users