TomTom Uses Paris Motor Show to Launch On-Street Parking Service

TomTom used the ongoing Paris Motor Show, Mondial de l’ Áuto as the venue to announce the launch of its new On-Street Parking service. This new service could make a significant difference in the time motorists take to find a parking spot in crowded urban areas. Initially, the company plans to offer the service as a data feed for about 25 cities in Europe before taking it global. This new service from TomTom will complement company’s current information service for Off-Street Parking or information on parking garages that it already offers to its licensing customers and TomTom customers.

TomTom is basing this service on its storehouse of GPS data that supplies information as to the places where drivers look for parking spots and the requirement and availability of such spots at different times of the day. This information is used to provide motorists with information as to their chances of finding on street parking and the time they are likely to spend searching for a spot. In the event that access restriction and pricing details are available, TomTom will make publish these details also.

This new On-Street Parking service from TomTom represents a significant advance in view of the strides that have been made in autonomous vehicle technology, as self-driving vehicles could use such a service to find a parking spot and park themselves.

Speaking about the new service, Ralf-Peter Schäfer, Head of Traffic and Travel Information at TomTom said that the new service will not only help motorists to save time and money but will also provide them with peace of mind and a less stressful parking experience. It will also go a long way towards reducing congestion in cities as a lot of congestion is caused by vehicles looking for parking. This will lead to lower CO₂ emissions. Based on data obtained through the service, cities can gain an insight into street parking patterns and use this to better manage the street parking inventory and thus improve urban mobility.