How Have Technologies Made Cities Digitally Connected?

Marcos Morelli
Created by Marcos Morelli (User Generated Content*)User Generated Content is not posted by anyone affiliated with, or on behalf of, Playbuzz.com.
On Nov 2, 2017
Help Translate This Item

When it comes to parking, various places and construction sites get discussed such as parking meters, gates, garages, tickets, and receipts. Most of these areas are necessary, whereas some are the reminders of the previous time when there was no technology or software to cover all those places and clearly optimize the Zona Azul parking. But the technology has been upgraded and the practice that enables cities to be digitally managed is “connected cars”.

The connected car is a part of two technological trends, the “Internet of Things” and the mobile app revolution. Mobile app revolution defines the shift towards usability of smartphones for almost everything from making bank deposits to hailing a cab. And on the other hand, IoT, Internet of Things describes the fact that many devices, from refrigerators to watches, are going to be connected to the Internet soon.

Both these trends and their combined effect are posing greater opportunities as well as threats to the current parking conditions.

The practice of connected cars is simple. Now the new cars will get connected to the Internet, either through a mobile device or on their own, and might even have the ability to communicate with other cars.

It has been predicted in a research that, by the end of this year, more than 50% of new cars that ship globally will have the connected-car solutions. Within a very short span of time, “connected” will be the standard not only for cars, but for watches, thermostat, and so on. It has also been predicted that, by the year 2020, there would be almost 50 billion connected products.

As the connected car is on the horizon, mobile applications offer the same functionality. They already help the commuters with almost everything from taxi-hailing and GPS to public transportation. These technologies attract billion dollars of investment from venture capital firms, auto manufacturers, and technology companies like Google and Intel.

As far as the aspect of connected cars is concerned, Apple has launched “CarPlay”. This allows the iPhone application to sync with the car’s dashboard. Honda, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, and Volvo models get already compatible with the CarPlay. Website of Apple boasts over two dozen committed partners, including many major car manufacturers.

It is obvious that connected cars are not just for the iPhone users. As Google also launched the “Open Automotive Alliance” for Android, and Microsoft launched Windows in Cars, that allows both Android and Windows apps and phones to sync with the cars too.

Now the question is how much value connected cars add to the parking operators and commuters, and how this technology saves the parking industry?

For operators, connected cars have limitless implications. Those who embrace it will definitely gain the competitive advantage to a wide extent. Lastly, when operators make efforts to create better parking experience, people would prefer to drive as well as park over the competing transportation alternatives.

For commuters, the answer is simple and clear. As consumers use mobile applications to order food or hail the ride with Uber, they are also able to find as well as pay for the parking through mobile apps or via the connected dashboard of a car. With connected cars, drivers would have the easier time in parking their vehicles the way they want.

Below given some aspects which when get considered, help operators to provide effortless and digitally managed parking to the drivers. 

‘Discoverability’. It brings more drivers. Connected cars put facilities on the map. Instead of relying on the drive-up traffic, when operators embrace connected cars and mobile apps, they will be able to make parking easier for the drivers. Operators would have the golden opportunity to attract the much wider network of the drivers.

‘Data integration’. It helps to streamline the operations.

When operators allow the providers of connected car technology to access their data, they can smartly operate their garage area and parking spots. By sharing everything from open spots and rates to “big data” of parking supply & demand would make their operations efficiently as well as bring more and more business for them.

At Last,

Parking operators can do many things to earn more money and clients with connected cars. If they work well with the Zona Azul parking providers, then there is a high possibility that their market presence and size will expand. It will also make parking easier. 


These are 10 of the World CRAZIEST Ice Cream Flavors
Created by Tal Garner
On Nov 18, 2021