French Use Space Tech To Find Parking Spots 112
itwbennett writes "Using technology developed by French space agency CNES (Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales) to explore the planet Venus, drivers in the city of Toulouse are discovering something much more down-to-earth: vacant parking spots. The system is based on 3,000 sensors buried just under the pavement that detect changes in the electromagnetic environment around them and communicate the results via coaxial cable to a server, which makes the information available in real time to drivers' smartphones."
Driving with smartphones? (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder whether Toulouse has laws against using your smartphone while driving -- this could be a nice income source for the municipality as well, staking out the parking spots with hidden cameras!
Same in SF (Score:5, Interesting)
We have a similar system in San Francisco:
http://sfpark.org/how-it-works/ [sfpark.org]
old news (Score:3, Interesting)
They have had something like this at BWI for years. Even better - you don't have to look at your phone while driving. There are red and green lights marking open spots and the number of free spaces listed at the head of each row.
Similarly, the parking structure at the Grove in LA lists the number of free spaces per floor.
Bad Article or Worst System Ever? (Score:4, Interesting)
"The 3,000 sensors, buried about nine inches apart, are able to pinpoint open parking spots within 980 feet"
Something doesn't seem right about that.