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It would actually reduce congestion. When I had a car here in SF, in many cases, I spent more time driving around looking for parking than actually driving to a

by dntrkv 11y ago

It would actually reduce congestion. When I had a car here in SF, in many cases, I spent more time driving around looking for parking than actually driving to and from my destination. This would prevent that since the car could drop you off and head back home or to a nearby area with more readily available parking. Take this idea to the next level, and you can have services like Uber that are run completely by algorithm. These cars can be parked all around the city and as soon as someone requests an Uber, the car wakes up and picks the customer up, after dropoff it finds the most efficient place to repark itself and wait for the next customer. This would significantly reduce congestion in big cities.

duderific 11y ago
How the heck would the car know where there is more readily available parking? It seems like parking is a whole other area of work that needs to be done. It would need to: - Know local parking lots - Know that if a sign says "full" it can't go in - If it's not full, somehow grab the ticket out of the machine - Know the difference between parallel parking and other types - Know if a meter is expired - Pay for a meter if it is, or not if it isn't - Tell how much time is left on a meter - Be able to read parking restriction signs (street sweeping, restricted time ranges) - Etc. etc. Edit: tried hard to get the above to output as a bullet list, couldn't get it to work.
- mschuster91 11y ago
  Cloud parking. If a car spots a parking spot (cities could encode these in Google Maps, too, for example) which is free, it notifies the cloud. Cities may also take advantage of already ubiquitous CCTVs and optical recognition software to provide parking info.
- scott_o 11y ago
  parking garages/lots would be incentivized to work with manufacturers to come up with automated ways to check in and out because it directly leads to more revenue for them (and less hassle with accidents I'd bet) Just availability is already available and popular in some cities, Seattle for instance http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/epark/default.htm http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/epark/default.htm I think you're vastly overstating the complexity of figuring if a parking spot is available and paying for it.
- dntrkv 11y ago
  a. You can use parking / traffic data to find neighborhoods most likely to have available street parking and look for parking there. As for solving the problem of when you're allowed to park somewhere, this is already being worked on [0][1] and I would put money on it being ready before autonomous cars. b. Use parking garage app to find the best balance between distance and price of parking for the time needed. As far as determining if the garage is full, many garages have sensors now that count how many open spaces there are. It would not be stretch to assume that by the time autonomous cars are ready, this data will be available within the parking apps. c. One of the cool things about having a computer make these decisions is that it can factor in a limitless amount of data to make the most efficient decision. Kind of how Google Maps gives you different transportation options when you ask for directions, you could do the same with parking. The car can ask you, which of these options would you like: 1. Drive 30 minutes in this direction and you can park for free. Cost for power to drive there: $1.12 - Time to summon: 30 minutes - Cost for parking: $0.00 2. Park in a parking lot around the block: Cost for power to drive there: $0.08 - Time to summon: 5 minutes - Cost for parking: $10.00 etc... I agree with you though, parking is a huge issue in the city and I really can't believe it hasn't been fixed yet. We are getting there, but very slowly. [0] http://sfpark.org http://sfpark.org [1] http://spotangels.com http://spotangels.com

by dntrkv 11y ago

duderific 11y ago

How the heck would the car know where there is more readily available parking? It seems like parking is a whole other area of work that needs to be done. It would need to: - Know local parking lots - Know that if a sign says "full" it can't go in - If it's not full, somehow grab the ticket out of the machine - Know the difference between parallel parking and other types - Know if a meter is expired - Pay for a meter if it is, or not if it isn't - Tell how much time is left on a meter - Be able to read parking restriction signs (street sweeping, restricted time ranges) - Etc. etc. Edit: tried hard to get the above to output as a bullet list, couldn't get it to work.

mschuster91 11y ago
Cloud parking. If a car spots a parking spot (cities could encode these in Google Maps, too, for example) which is free, it notifies the cloud. Cities may also take advantage of already ubiquitous CCTVs and optical recognition software to provide parking info.
scott_o 11y ago
parking garages/lots would be incentivized to work with manufacturers to come up with automated ways to check in and out because it directly leads to more revenue for them (and less hassle with accidents I'd bet) Just availability is already available and popular in some cities, Seattle for instance http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/epark/default.htm http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/epark/default.htm I think you're vastly overstating the complexity of figuring if a parking spot is available and paying for it.
dntrkv 11y ago
a. You can use parking / traffic data to find neighborhoods most likely to have available street parking and look for parking there. As for solving the problem of when you're allowed to park somewhere, this is already being worked on [0][1] and I would put money on it being ready before autonomous cars. b. Use parking garage app to find the best balance between distance and price of parking for the time needed. As far as determining if the garage is full, many garages have sensors now that count how many open spaces there are. It would not be stretch to assume that by the time autonomous cars are ready, this data will be available within the parking apps. c. One of the cool things about having a computer make these decisions is that it can factor in a limitless amount of data to make the most efficient decision. Kind of how Google Maps gives you different transportation options when you ask for directions, you could do the same with parking. The car can ask you, which of these options would you like: 1. Drive 30 minutes in this direction and you can park for free. Cost for power to drive there: $1.12 - Time to summon: 30 minutes - Cost for parking: $0.00 2. Park in a parking lot around the block: Cost for power to drive there: $0.08 - Time to summon: 5 minutes - Cost for parking: $10.00 etc... I agree with you though, parking is a huge issue in the city and I really can't believe it hasn't been fixed yet. We are getting there, but very slowly. [0] http://sfpark.org http://sfpark.org [1] http://spotangels.com http://spotangels.com