In a couple of years a car will find its own parking spot

Due to the combined technological advances of motor vehicles, telecommunication devices and parking garages, the revolution of parking is just around the corner. In the near future, we can expect the termination of ticket machines and the introduction of self-parking vehicles and self-operating parking systems.

The growing number of cars in today’s Hungary means that parking problems are on the rise as well. To improve the situation local governments and other players of the industry – car dealers, energy companies, the real estate business and companies providing the most advanced IT solutions – have to join forces in order to address motorists concerning conscious and responsible driving. According to experts parking garages and underground garages need to be utilized more efficiently and there is also a need for new level solutions for urban parking and mobility problems.

In connection with the modernization of parking systems a new investor appeared in Hungary last year.

In addition to New Zealand, Malaysia and the United Kingdom, the Australian-owned Care Park Ltd. has now interests in Budapest as well since late 2017.

The company, which operates more than 450 parking garages in three continents, came with a HUF 21 million investment to the capital city. Care Park has installed a system which includes a self-governing parking mechanism designed to accelerate the flow of traffic in shopping mall car parks. Thanks to its licence plate recognition feature, the driver does not have to take a physical ticket, which means instead of stopping, it is enough to slow down until the barrier opens.

If one does not exceed free parking time, then on the way out the barrier will open automatically, and as there is no need to handle the parking ticket, traffic becomes smoother. If the duration of the parking goes beyond the free period, then the owner has to select the licence plate of his or her vehicle on the touchscreen of a machine located inside the building, and then the bill can be settled there. According to the company’s philosophy the parking experience can be increased not only by technical means, but also by the alteration of the physical environment, for example with the transformation of the curbside at the entrance gate.

Care Park is a market leader in utilizing innovative systems, since they work with the most advanced technologies of the industry, and they employ professionals with the utmost knowledge and international experience in parking management systems.

With value-added technologies such as licence plate recognition, parking reservation and the “My Care Park” service, Care Park makes the parking experience hassle-free and user friendly. My Care Park is a smart technology for reservation that allows you to track vacant parking spaces. The application navigates the user to the parking destination and he or she can even settle the parking fee with it as well.

“One method of smart parking is to direct drivers to unused parking spaces in parking garages. An informal asymmetry exists between public and parking garage spaces, which means that we easily identify free parking spaces on the surface, but we have no information about the spaces available in indoor parking garages. Therefore we use such state-of-the-art applications in parking technology as smartphone solutions, apps and parking reservation systems. These will not only make parking more convenient, but also the capacity of parking garages and underground garages can be filled more efficiently.”– said Lóránt Oláh, managing director of Care Park Ltd.

Tendencies towards the future

One of the challenges of the next couple of years is that the experts will have to find a solution to the parking of electric and self-guided cars, to the demands raised by electric chargers or to reserving parking places through the car’s on-board computer.

Today, it is commonplace to manage parking with the help of a smartphone app. The ratio of mobile parking is on the up, in certain parts of downtown Budapest 70% of the parkings are paid for via smartphone. It raises the question that if this ratio reaches 100% will it be necessary to keep parking meters? According to the representatives of the parking industry these machines don’t even have 10 years left since everybody will use their smartphones to pay their parking fees.