Gadgetory

ok I don't know it just beats at me but it doesn't do anything there has got to be a better way oh wait there totally is I don't think anyone's gonna argue with me here parking is an area that is ripe for innovation whether it's how we pay for it or how we find it we're making it easier for people to get to those merchants so the city benefits because they can increase their revenue they can reduce congestion third of cars that are moving in large cities are no longer in transit now they're doing that blind circle saying where do i park so we can alleviate that second step and alleviate as much as 20 minutes in a dream but we make it really easy to get to that law firm that flower shop or that you know restaurant silicon valley-based street line is one of the companies rethinking the parking experience they're building text so drivers can more easily find parking by showing what spaces are open or occupied so there's this active data for an area yes so we can also get a bird's-eye view of how many cars are parked so right now we know right to n down to individual spaces what spaces are full and not less than two one or zero it's red it's such a dynamic environment there's probably not going to be that space is not gonna be left if it's there right but on the other hand green 4 plus there's enough spaces that even if you're a minute or two away you can find the parking spaces to create these data rich maps engineers have designed wireless sensors which they embed into the ground in parking spaces and so now this is the hardware this is a sensor here's the sensor so the sensor is a wireless 2.4 gigahertz little mesh networked wonder right and the system is put into the pavement so a car pulls in to a spot with a sensor mm-hmm and then over here we see the car as a matter of fact right here our system senses it within about 10 seconds takes up to the internet and then back down to reports within about a minute I'm just fascinated by all of the changes that could potentially come from this data like it just gets more powerful by the minute it seems the data that's gathered gets wrapped up into a neat little mobile app so you can get voice guided direction to open parking spaces now this I had to try I'm gonna go on a hunt for a parking spot here in downtown San Mateo so there's only 17 so I better get in here why parking nearby let's go find some like I does alone my parking spot I guess okay you'll be sorry it's only 17 parked within the whole town operation find parking this is officially the most stressful part of the day this doesn't feel like the safest thing ever oh I see now the line connects to where there's parking ok so let's see what happens if I turn right turn right onto east 3rd that's us let's see if this will just guide us in 300 feet 150 feet I don't see any spots better be a spot right here look at that right where the red dot is look at that well done not bad I wish I was built into the app so i didn't have to like kind of come out into parking but yeah boom found it you can start to imagine the possibilities when sensors are everywhere and this kind of data is always available so what does the future look like when every parking space has a sensor potentially every device has some kind of interface for finding parking right well that's a good point this is a start but a mobile app is a start but where you really want to push that data is to where the consumers are where are they they're in their cars they're using nav systems so we provide that data on an API interface or some sort of data feed to those car manufacturers they can put that in integrate it with real-time traffic integrated with navigation integrated with other services and bring it all together now parking isn't totally caveman like it used to be for example I have a whole collection of apps that let me park anywhere no quarters necessary so I'm just gonna put a little time on the meter let's just do 15 minutes because looks to you for less nine minutes I'm just gonna go grab a cup of coffee start parking oh I got so distracted by Twitter that I forgot that my parking had deactivated so just go right on back and had another session I think I need like I don't know just 10 more minutes in the Sun ok now I'm good you