Plus I'm not sold that the points system will be enough for people to take time to mark free spots when they're just trying to get on with their day. Unless th

Plus I'm not sold that the points system will be enough for people to take time to mark free spots when they're just trying to get on with their day. Unless they start saying "you can't keep using this program unless you have a certain number of points," anyway. Now if Google could collect real-time data via automated parking ticket systems, or even by getting access to security camera feeds and doing some image processing, then they'd be in business. I don't know how these systems are typically run, but it might be a smart move for Google to pursue partnerships with popular big-city parking locations for exclusive access to this data, to the extent that it can be collected from current systems.