Berlin, June 28, 2016– A quick glance at your smartphone or in-car navigation system and you know just where to find the nearest on- and off-street parking spaces. A simple tap on the screen and your nearby space is reserved. Electric car drivers, who now make up a large proportion of traffic, are allocated a space with a charging station. What might sound like a distant, science fiction vision will actually be commonplace in the next couple of years. In contrast, car drivers will be waiting up to ten years for fully-automated parking. These were among the expert predictions made by leading figures from the automotive and parking management industries at the 3rd APCOA PARKING Mobility Summit, in Berlin on 28 June, 2016. Gathering under the banner “Disrupt or be disrupted”, international business representatives joined with eminent scientists and academics to discuss the challenges of mobility in response to the digitalisation of the automotive and parking management sectors.
One thing is certain: Parking facilities will change fundamentally in the very near future. Digitalisation is going to have a significant impact on both the automotive and parking management industries,” said Philippe Op de Beeck, CEO of the APCOA PARKING Group, Europe's leading parking manager.
Big Data is set to play an increasingly central role in these developments. Alex Israel, from Inrix Inc., presented a technical system that uses Big Data to generate forecasts of parking facility occupancy patterns. This will dramatically reduce the number of drivers circling the streets looking for parking spaces, traffic that currently makes up around 30% of all cars on the road in urban centres.
Dr. Rolf Nicodemus, Project Vice President, Connected Parking at the Robert Bosch GmbH, explored the concept of automated parking. Driverless parking is already possible in facilities with network connectivity, allowing space in car parks to be used 20% more efficiently.
More power for end-users
More and more cities are imposing limits on the number of cars allowed to enter their central districts as they look to reduce emissions, traffic volumes and noise levels. The proportion of paid parking spaces will increase as free parking facilities are reduced. At the same time, demand for parking assistance systems, automated car parks and intelligent driver assistance systems will grow in response, explained the futurologist Alexander Mankowsky.
”It is already the case that nine out of ten drivers plan extra time into their journeys for finding a parking space at their destination. This costs them between 10 and 30 minutes per car journey, depending on which city or neighbourhood they are in. All in all, this adds up to significant number of wasted days per year, just spent on finding parking spaces,” explained Dr. Dietmar Geppert, Director Marketing & Sales at APCOA PARKING Holdings GmbH.
As a result, Geppert believes that drivers are now prepared to pay more for centrally located parking spaces. “As more and more parking spaces are networked, drivers will be able to use apps to select the parking spaces they want. This will give more power to consumers and allow an increased number of ancillary services to be provided in future,” continued Geppert.
The evolving car park
What this range of ancillary services might look like in future was the subject of Op de Beeck's address: “Just a few years from now, the world will be very different. It will be hybrid and electric cars that fill our streets.” Today, one quarter of the new cars sold in Norway are electric vehicles. And a ban on the registration of new combustion engine cars from the year 2025 is being seriously considered in the Netherlands and Norway. “Car parks will become interesting sites for charging stations,” observed Op de Beeck.
”Urbanisation and digitalisation are the two mega trends of our age. Although they present challenges, they also offer great possibilities for connected mobility. We have an amazing opportunity to elevate customer service and customer relations to an entirely new level,” said Op de Beeck.
