It’s similar but not quite the same. In the parking problem you don’t know how many free spaces there are to begin with, and the ‘quality’ metric of each space

It’s similar but not quite the same. In the parking problem you don’t know how many free spaces there are to begin with, and the ‘quality’ metric of each space is just a linear function of its location. In the idealized problem presented, each space as you go along the line is strictly better than every previous space - you just don’t know whether it is the last one. The analogous secretary problem would be to be presented with a sequence of increasingly suitable candidates, but never knowing whether each candidate is the last one.