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French Use Space Tech To Find Parking Spots
itwbennett writes "Using technology developed by French space agency CNES (Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales) to explore the planet Venus, drivers in the city of Toulouse are discovering something much more down-to-earth: vacant parking spots. The system is based on 3,000 sensors buried just under the pavement that detect changes in the electromagnetic environment around them and communicate the results via coaxial cable to a server, which makes the information available in real time to drivers' smartphones."
I wonder whether Toulouse has laws against using your smartphone while driving -- this could be a nice income source for the municipality as well, staking out the parking spots with hidden cameras!
We have the same thing at some commuter train parking lots in the Chicago area. Between two lots I know of, they combine for over 3,000 spots. And we didn't need freakin' NASA to create the technology
Ours are better here because they are not so outrageously French.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
So the plan is to explore Venus by burying sensors around the planet and detecting when something parks on top of them?
At least the pioneers will be able to locate a parking spot quickly!
You made a joke about the French being cowards and their women having too much hair! Hahahahahaha! That is both clever and original sir, i salute you! The only thing I can't understand is why you posted anonymously and denied yourself credit for such hilarity!
We have a similar system in San Francisco:
http://sfpark.org/how-it-works/
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
They have had something like this at BWI for years. Even better - you don't have to look at your phone while driving. There are red and green lights marking open spots and the number of free spaces listed at the head of each row.
Similarly, the parking structure at the Grove in LA lists the number of free spaces per floor.
... the parking lots have displays showing how many spots are still free. When you drive in and get your ticket, the number is decremented. When you drive out, putting the paid ticket back into the machine, it gets incremented. Very simple and effective. However, you need to be physically close to the parking lot to see the display. But I'm not sure if I want a bunch of folks fiddling with their smart phones, while trying to drive as well.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Step on it Pierre, no time Toulouse!
"The 3,000 sensors, buried about nine inches apart, are able to pinpoint open parking spots within 980 feet"
Something doesn't seem right about that.
DDoP (Distributed Denial of Parking) attacks -- the ultimate in dick driving!
"Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power." -- James Madison
disclaimer : I'm a municipal elected official, and we just had the local planning board (which covers two counties) for a parking study.
The trick is, you want to have open parking spaces, because open spaces mean that people can use the shops, but you don't want to make it so that people park for too long in the prime spots. So, you have to go to tiered pricing with different time limits:
Sometimes you don't need to raise prices, you just need to lower the time limit ... we've got a few shop owners who park their vehicles on main street as there's 2 hour meters with no limit on time ... but I'm guessing they'd be less likely to hog those spots if they had to go out every hour to feed the meters, even if the rates per hour were the same.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I don't buy it for a minute. If it was really about "reducing pollution" they wouldn't be going after "illegal long term parkers" because after all a car that is turned off generates no exhaust fumes. This is just another revenue ploy.
A car that blocks a parking lot for a week forces dozens of short term parkers to search another five minutes for another lot.
Fandroids hate facts.
If he wanted credit, he'd post with his username and call Americans fat and stupid. Modded +5 in no time.
If he wanted credit, he'd post with his username and call Americans fat and stupid. Modded +5 in no time.
I may be fat and stupid, but you
If he wanted credit, he'd post with his username and call Americans fat and stupid. Modded +5 in no time.
Yes, but as an american he's too fat and stupid to realize that.
http://xkcd.com/562/
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Seriously, this would be such an incredibly simple, cheap and useful solution: For every large open parking lot, put a webcam on a roof or nearby antenna. When you arrive at the parking lot, a quick look on your smartphone will immediately show you where the open spots are. No need for sensors (which are expensive, will fail regularly, and may not detect small and/or incorrectly parked vehicles, motorcycles,...), no complicated connections with underground coax cables, no expensive maintenance. Just one webcam, connected to some small server which is connected to the internet.
Of course indoor parking lots would be more difficult, sensors are probably a better bet there. But then you can use much simpler detectors, for example optical ones mounted on the roof.
Yeah, this is just an excuse for the government to have another electronic “eye” watching you all the frigging time.
The goal isn’t to eliminate wrongdoers, the goal is to monetize them more efficiently. If wrongdoers were eliminated, they wouldn’t make any money off parking tickets. It’s just the same argument as the red-light cameras, which my city has had for a while and is currently considering moving them to new intersections because hardly anyone runs the cameras any more. Mission accomplished – wait, these aren’t making any more money... problem? Only if your goal was to make money.
Of course if they move them, I’m sure the previously-monitored intersections will pretty quickly return to exactly as they were before the cameras were installed. If the goal is to cut down on T-bone accidents caused by red-light runners at intersections that are identified as particularly bad for this sort of thing, the cameras need to stay at those intersections, yeah? Moving the cameras to less-bad intersections simply to generate more revenue could actually result in people getting killed. Priorities? You bet.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.