The Green Approach by the Big Names: What Is It and What Are Mercedes, BMW, and Tesla Doing Wrong?
Updated: Jun 27
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions linked to the manufacturing of cars are growing every year in tandem with the number of vehicles produced. As a result, the automobile manufacturing industry strives to comply with the environmental rules that go along with the low-carbon economies that many governments seek. But, not surprisingly, instead of meddling with the growing number, corporations linked to big automobile brands work on decreasing the footprint the cars leave on earth once they are out of the production factory and on the streets of our cities.
Cars hunting for a parking spot account for 30% of carbon emissions and 30% of traffic accidents caused by the motor industry. As a result, many automakers and technology firms are investing in smart parking system research and development. For example, BMW has just developed a new technology following similar parking solutions offered by Tesla's "Smart Summon" and Mercedes' "Park Pilot". The new technology of "Automated Valet Parking (AVP)" adopted by BMW enables drivers to leave their automobiles in a designated drop-off zone from where the system will take care of parking on its own. Unlike the Smart Summon and Park Pilot, AVP does not require a human to oversee the parking process, so no one needs to be in the car while it's parking itself.
Why is AVP a good solution, and what is even better?
AVP-equipped vehicles navigate using sensors, cameras, and maps to securely steer onto a parking spot that does not have to be so wide that a human driver can park in it. As a result, parking spaces may become smaller now, especially since the car door will no longer need to be opened to allow the driver to exit. However, these first innovative technologies developed by all these big brands of the motor industry continue to rely on traditional data when creating parking management systems. The parking space supply that is accounted for in these systems does not represent hard facts about the availability of private parking spots, which are unused 70% of the time. Furthermore, these new vehicles need parking lots and garages that are specially made for them, as well as robotic engineering facilities and properly installed instrumentation to accommodate their in-built parking solutions. Scientific research advocates for better utilization of the available parking spaces instead of building new parking lots or assigning car brands to commercial parking lot businesses where, in some places, 1 in 5 of all traffic accidents occur and, in others, it's 65%.
What Does the Science Have to Say on Parking Solutions?
Parking research is a growing field which uses Internet Of Things (IOT) both for the research on and development in the field of parking management. Research shows that an average car spends only "5% of its lifetime in running state and remaining 95% as parked." The number of cars produced reached 98 million just before the Covid pandemic. So, it should come as no surprise that smart parking technologies proliferate when the manufacturing of vehicles grows at the rate of a three percent yearly increase and the total land on earth stays the same. However, independent scientific studies by many university and state institutes suggest a more dependable and decentralized solution that incorporates platform technologies and Internet Of Things (IOT) into research and development of parking management systems.
In their research backed by the European Commission, scholars from Glasgow University explain how parking-sharing "is emerging as a new notion of making more efficient use of existing parking infrastructures. It uses existing gaps intended for parking cars when the owner is not using it. By making parking spaces (owned by individuals or shopping malls) publicly available for rent, shared parking not only allows the owner to make additional money but also helps alleviate the shortage of parking spaces, which helps save travel time, and reduce fuel consumption, emission and road congestion. With the revolution of information and communications technology, private parking sharing can be simply enabled through an online platform ("e-parking platform"), which directly connects a private parking slot owner who shares his parking property when not in use with public users who are looking for a place to park for certain hours."
Sharing Economy Comes to Rescue: Let's Parky!
The "e-parking platform" advocated by scientists is here. The scientific approach to parking management lies with developing economically viable and equitable ways that can endure the effects of congestion, expansion of urban living areas, and commute length, without increasing commercial parking space supply or modifying the existing ones. Just as we share vacation homes and car rides, the best solution to parking problems is to share the existing spaces instead of building new ones. As part of a scientific initiative, LetsParky offers the best solution by offering the tools with which we can collectively create a sharing economy and enable the collaborative use and management of (parking spot) resources. There are already 300 million parking spots in Western Europe, and two billion in the US, which is more than enough for us to Parky.
How It Works
Parking Space Owners | Drivers | The Planet |
escapes 30% of congestion caused by parking search traffic | ||
list your parking spot to let on LetsParky platform when it is unused | enter time frame and view available parking spots around destination point | clears from 28 million metric tons of CO2 emitted from parking search |
manage reservations and collect payments via LetsParky mobile app | select, book, and navigate to reserved parking spots via LetsParky mobile app | saves $72.7 billion from 3.6 billion hours of time and 1.7 billion gallons of fuel used in parking search |
The promise is simple and the way to provide is straight-forward:“Next time a parking spot needs to be found, drivers will use the LetsParky Mobile App to see and choose from available spaces, before arrival.” Find out more about what LetsParky has to offer you or how you can contribute to the solution: Let's Parky!