It is estimated that drivers spend an average of 2,500 hours of their lives looking for a parking space and that 30% of city traffic is caused by vehicles looking to park, which contributes to the emission of up to 50 million tons of pollution in Europe. A team of researchers from EasyPark, Europe´s largest parking app, has invested 10 years and around 10 million euro to develop Find & Pay, the first predictive technology to search for parking.
Find & Pay uses big data, predictive analytics and machine learning to halve time spent searching for parking, helping to reduce driver stress levels and reducing traffic jam and pollutant emissions in large cities, EasyPark reports in a statement.
It combines user location information and data captured with IoT devices to create an accurate map of the parking probabilities in different sections of the city and during different times of the day. With that information, it offers users a route to their destination along the streets with a greater probability of free spaces, constantly balancing the remaining time to reach the destination by car and the walking distance to find the optimal route.
Predictive Technology
In addition, it provides turn-by-turn navigation along the route and allows users to manage and pay their parking remotely, creating a simple and complete experience.
«We are eager to bring this technology onto the market and verify the great impact it has on drivers’ attitude, traffic jam and pollution of cities. This technology has the potential to reduce emissions by hundreds of thousands of tons» said Johan Birgersson, CEO of EasyPark Group.
Find & Pay is in the beta phase on a large scale, with more than 500 testers in 31 European cities that test, validate and improve its predictive capacity. The system´s self-learning algorithms will continue to improve over time thanks to continuous testing and continuous feedback from users, the company says.
Find & Pay will start operating in Stockholm in September and will reach 30 other major European cities, including Barcelona, Tarragona, Merida and Albacete during the fall. In 2018, London and New York are expected to join.
