The Latest Trends in Smart Vehicles and What They Mean for Parking
Ruth Goodwin
The future is now. Many of our science fiction visionaries’ predictions have come true; while we are all still waiting on our jetpacks and laser swords, futuristic innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), smart cities, augmented reality, and more are changing the way we live to match the wildest dreams of futurists past. And just like the horseless carriage once wowed people at World’s Fair exhibitions, today the driverless car is edging out of science fiction and into science fact, with prototypes and even fleets of almost-ready autonomous vehicles roaming the streets of our major cities.
It’s fun to point to these robo-cars solving their trolley problems and joke about Skynet and Maximum Overdrive, but a robot uprising is really the least of our concerns when it comes to autonomous vehicles. More mundane issues must take center stage, including the drop in driving jobs, and — central to our priorities at WhereiPark — the future of parking. Let’s take a look at some of the latest advancements in connected and autonomous cars and think about what that means for tomorrow’s parking lots. It may not be jetpacks and laser swords, but it’s going to feel pretty important if a fleet of autonomous cars boxes you in on your way home from the store.
Even without officially taking the wheel, AI is going to be influencing the way we drive. Facial recognition software will be able to identify driver fatigue to increase safety and even take over in case of driver error. Many of these devices are already in place in the fleets of automated delivery vehicles and robo-taxis cruising around our cities, which often still require human oversight in case of emergencies. On the business side of driverless development, more companies are consolidating their research and pooling their resources to deliver the first fully autonomous vehicle. Although Elon Musk promised to do so by 2021, it seems the road to full autonomy is still packed with human-driven vehicles.
When these fully robotic cars emerge, they will have a profound influence on parking. Just from a geometric perspective, vehicles without drivers can park very close together, since there’s no need for a driver to have room to get in. Meanwhile, driverless vehicles like robo-taxis that still take passengers will cruise instead of parking, leaving spaces unused but increasing urban gridlock. This means vehicles will make increasingly efficient use of space, leaving more existing parking space open for other uses.
Many property owners will eventually expand their actual buildings into what used to be unused parking space, while others will turn that space into open-air shopping or recreation centers, or even community gathering areas such as urban gardens. In this way, autonomous vehicles are just one more factor transforming the parking landscape and encouraging property owners to future-proof their lots for maximum value.