Introduction to AI Variables and Their Impact on Pricing

ParqEx’s AI-driven Dynamic and Predictive Pricing Platform leverages various variables or key influencers to optimize parking space pricing and utilization. This document outlines the different variables considered by ParqEx’s AI algorithms and their impact on the predictive and dynamic pricing outcome.

AI Variables/Key Influencers in ParqEx’s AI Pricing Model

1. Demand

• Description: Refers to the number of people looking for parking spaces in a specific area.
• Impact on Pricing: Higher demand leads to increased prices, while lower demand results in decreased prices. The AI system adjusts prices by a certain percentage (e.g., 10% for every 10% increase in occupancy) to balance supply and demand effectively.

2. Time of Day

• Description: Represents the specific hours during the day, categorized into peak and off-peak hours.
• Impact on Pricing: Peak hours (e.g., 8-10 am, 5-7 pm) typically experience a price increase (e.g., 20%) due to higher demand, while prices may decrease during off-peak times to encourage utilization.

3. Day of the Week

• Description: Indicates whether it is a weekday or weekend.
• Impact on Pricing: Weekends may see a price increase (e.g., 15%) compared to weekdays, reflecting changes in parking demand due to various social and commercial activities.

4. Location

• Description: Proximity to high-demand areas like downtown or attractions.
• Impact on Pricing: Areas within close proximity to high-demand locations can experience a significant price increase (e.g., 30%) due to higher parking demand.

5. Special Events

• Description: Local events such as concerts, sports games, or festivals.
• Impact on Pricing: Prices can double or more during major events due to a sharp increase in demand for parking spaces.

6. Seasonality

• Description: Seasonal changes affecting parking demand.
• Impact on Pricing: Prices may increase during tourist seasons or special holidays when parking demand is higher.

7. Weather

• Description: Includes conditions like rain, snow, extreme heat, etc.
• Impact on Pricing: Bad weather might decrease prices due to reduced demand, while good weather can increase prices, especially in scenic areas.

8. Parking Duration

• Description: The length of time a parking spot is used.
• Impact on Pricing: Longer durations might be offered at discounted rates, while short-term parking may be priced higher.

9. Type of Parking Spot

• Description: Varieties include standard, compact, electric vehicle (EV) charging, etc.
• Impact on Pricing: Specialized spots like EV charging might be priced higher than standard spots due to their additional amenities or limited availability.

10. Revenue Targets

• Description: The desired revenue goals for a property or parking area.
• Impact on Pricing: Pricing strategies may be adjusted to meet these revenue targets, influencing the increase or decrease in parking rates.

Product page: Dynamic and Predictive AI Pricing for Parking

Conclusion

ParqEx’s AI-driven Dynamic and Predictive Pricing Platform intelligently analyzes these variables to set optimal pricing strategies, ensuring maximum utilization and revenue generation for parking assets. By understanding and leveraging the impact of these key influencers, property owners and managers can make informed decisions to enhance their parking service offerings, aligning with market dynamics and consumer behavior.

Are you curious about AI Variables and Their Impact on Pricing at your parking location?

Ready to experience the future of parking management? Book a meeting with the ParqEx team for a personalized demo of our AI-driven Dynamic and Predictive Pricing Platform. Discover how our technology can optimize your parking assets and maximize revenue. Book a Demo today!

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Benefits of Smart Tech Solutions to Your Property

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Pexels

Entering The Real Estate Market

 

Innovative ideas to combine technology, environmental consciousness, and location seamlessly slip into their new roles as homeowners. With the millennials’ flair for making the most of what they’ve got, the boomers might soon be looking to the millennials to help navigate the new real estate markets. 

 

Millennials make up the largest demographic in the nation, with over 70 million millennials eagerly waiting to enter the real estate market, making up most of the home-buyers market at a whopping 53.7% in Dallas alone, for example. A study conducted by the National Association of Home Builders concluded that despite a few millennials still choosing to live in the quiet greenery of suburbia, there are a great many of them that are preferring to settle in the city.

Pexels

Pexels

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In today’s world of dog-eat-dog business development, white labeling is a solution brought to the table more often than most might think. Every company is looking for ways to get ahead of its competition while maintaining a high ROI. Consequently, white labeling is a highly desired solution.

Commercial & industrial enterprises, co-working companies, and property management firms: are you looking to integrate a white label parking solution into your technology to gain a competitive edge over your competitors? Keep on reading below! 

What is White Labeling?

Simply put, white labeling allows companies to stick their brand name on a product another company designed and developed for a specific fee. In terms of ParqEx White Label Integrated Solutions, we provide our state-of-the-art Smart Parking Platform completely white-labeled with your companies branding. All for a simple SaaS fee, you’ll be gaining a highly sought-after amenity while monetizing and promoting your new branded parking management software.

How ParqEx White Label Parking Solutions Are Integrated

We provide two different options to integrate ParqEx White Label Parking solutions into preexisting apps or technology platforms; punch-out integration or API integration. Punch-out integration uses a webview, embedding it into the client’s native mobile app. API integration works in the sense that your platform can call ParqEx API. Options such as live vs. test environments, authentication, and more are available depending on the type of integration. Learn more here.

Who ParqEx White Label Parking Solutions Are Designed For

Our targeted clients for ParqEx White Label Parking Solutions are firms that already have tech, apps, or even property management platforms they are currently using. For these companies, adding a white label parking solution to their tech stack is exceptionally advantageous. Whether your business is part of an industrial or commercial enterprise, a property management firm, or a co-working company, the benefits of white labeling a parking management software apply to all.

Offer The Entire ParqEx Product Suite Under Your Brand

ParqEx’s Product Suite consists of six different modules and apps that can become yours through white labeling. First, Marketplace allows customers and management to find and list parking spots. This module monetizes existing assets while boosting revenue. Second, GuestParq is your visitor parking platform. With GuestParq, your company can eliminate any hassles revolving around guests. The power of guest parking is now in the hands of your staff and residents. Third, Access Control is your IoT technology that offers secure access to any door, gate, elevator, etc., on your property right from people’s smartphones.

Fourth, your enforcement module (The Enforcer App) allows you to verify every vehicle entering and exiting your property. Violations can be ticketed right through your app. Fifth, your License Plate Reading Technology (LPR) grants approved cars to enter and exit your property through cameras reading and registering the vehicle’s license plate. If the car is in the system, they will be allowed on the property. LPR is one hundred percent automated and touchless. Lastly, talking about touchless, you now have the option to become one hundred percent touchless within your building. This technology, which retrofits any door, allows visitors, tenants, and staff to open doors via their smartphone and your app, making your building touch-free.

Benefits of ParqEx White Label Parking Solutions

Apart from inheriting six refined and tested parking modules from ParqEx, white labeling ParqEx Parking Solutions has several other benefits. Some benefits include:

White Labeling – Saves Time & Money

Have you ever toyed around with the idea of creating your own parking management system? Coming from a company that has successfully built a management system from the ground up, it is not as easy as it would seem. It takes a lot of time and is expensive. Our solution for you is to white label our existing avant-garde parking management system! By doing so, your company will save months of development work and large sums of money. Additionally, your company and ParqEx can take pride in the fact that our technology will immediately become yours.

White Labeling – ParqEx, Your In-House Developers

As mentioned, developing your own product requires a lot of time and money. There is also, of course, the ever-present fear that the ROI will not meet expectations. Furthermore, in-house developers cost a fortune. White labeling provides a similar option to developing your own product yet for a fraction of the cost. Time and money have already been invested in the ParqEx White Label Parking Solutions, and ROI has already proven successful. White Label ParqEx Parking Solutions and save yourself time and money!

White Labeling – Stress-Free

Yes, your brand is on our product, but if ever an issue arises, you can live stress-free! ParqEx’s 24/7 support team is available to take responsibility for the problem and fix/update it. Instead of building a product yourself that is likely to struggle and have issues, white-label our quality parking solutions and never worry about troubleshooting.

White Labeling – Boost Your Branding & Customer Loyalty

By putting your company logo on our tech (now your tech), your brand awareness will increase. Every time a tenant uses your white-labeled product (ParqEx’s White Label Parking Solutions platform), they will immediately associate the simplicity and overall convenience of the product with your brand. The more people use your parking management system, the more people will recognize the quality of the technology. With that, customer loyalty and customer retention sky-rockets. White labeling our parking solutions will help increase your brand visibility, improve overall tenant satisfaction, improve your operations across the board, and add amenities, all while reducing your costs.

White Labeling – Generate Revenue

An impressive benefit is that your company is legally permitted to place its brand name on ParqEx’s tech through white labeling. Your business is also allowed to repackage and sell the parking technology platform, as it is now yours. ParqEx tech is already grounded and built for ways of generating revenue. Consequently, on a day-to-day basis, the product is already making money for your business. Being able to sell the parking technology platform takes it one step further and opens many revenue opportunities.

White Labeling – Add To Your Tech Stack

Instead of having to devote time, effort, and money to your product, white labeling provides an opportunity to use our pre-existing ParqEx platform with your brand name on the product. A significant advantage of white labeling that cannot be disregarded is the growing pains that ParqEx’s platform already had to go through. Today, our platform is exceptionally polished and refined, mainly due to countless revisions, loads of troubleshooting, and beta testing. We understand that technology is ever-changing, and we remain on top of our updates and revisions. All things considered, adding ParqEx’s Parking Solutions to your pre-existing tech stack is convenient in the sense that all you need to do is rebrand our technology as your own!

White Labeling – Differentiate Your Brand From Competitors

In a competitive world, setting yourself apart from your competition is essential. People are not afraid to shop around for the best option. Having your own Apple, Android, and web-based parking management platform for all your customers and employees is not only sleek, efficient, and effective, but it will certainly differentiate your brand from your competitors. Through white labeling ParqEx’s Parking Solutions, your brand will stand out, making you an instant market leader.  

The Success of White Labeling In Use

Without spending time and money developing a parking management platform, white labeling ParqEx parking solutions is a win-win for both parties. ParqEx benefits through the one flat SaaS fee, and your brand enjoys the perks of our platform, all while avoiding the hassles of having to build a parking solution platform from scratch. The question now is, why would you not white label ParqEx’s Parking Solutions? Through white labeling our parking management platform, your brand will have excellent parking management products, your tenants’ satisfaction will increase, and you will maintain an impressive ROI.

Inquire about ParqEx White Label Parking Solutions

White labeling is a proven successful investment. ParqEx parking solutions have already proven to be a solution to parking management and parking real estate’s several operational issues. Our Smart Parking solutions eliminate all hassles of parking management for the staff, all while improving staff productivity and staff & tenant satisfaction.

Through white labeling our Smart Parking solutions, your brand will set itself apart from its competitors. It’s certainly a rarity for a company to have its own parking management system. Be the exception! 

Moreover, your business will generate revenue through multiple facets, all while exponentially reducing costs. The parking management software already operates with revenue in mind. Add that to your ability to repackage and sell this parking technology platform; this revenue-generating engine will give you a competitive edge.

Furthermore, your business’s overall operational efficiency will increase. In terms of residents and staff, there are only potential benefits. Companies are in a constant race of how many amenities they offer to their tenants and staff. This highly sought-after parking management solution will be added to your pre-existent tech stack while providing a new amenity. Consequently, tenant and staff satisfaction and retention will increase.

ParqEx White Label Parking Solutions are available. Are you interested in benefiting from our technology and making it your own? Reach out to ParqEx for more information. Our team is looking forward to helping you!

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Echo

The dominant player in the smart home tech sector is Amazon’s Echo, nicknamed “Alexa” because that is the voice command to activate the device. This unit allows users to search, buy products, listen to music, get weather and much more just through their voice.

Additionally, through its smart apps and integrations, the product integrates with the entire home. Consumers can turn on lights, adjust the temperature, run the dishwasher and much more. Amazon has recently unveiled an Echo with a screen that allows videos and visual search after the voice command.

Smart Kitchen and Drop Scale

The connected kitchen has long been a dream of homeowners. Imagine turning on the coffee maker or the toaster from your phone or by voice command while still in bed. That makes the morning much more pleasant. Many companies are now developing and launching these items including Samsung, GE and Kenmore.

For example, Drop has introduced a smart scale that integrates with Amazon Echo and Google Home devices. The scale can be controlled by voice to turn on and off. It automatically weighs the food and matches it to a recipe you are working on. The scale can determine if you are over or under the amount prescribed in the recipe. This removes the cook’s anxiety of getting the recipe wrong.

Parking Devices

One of the most challenging and logistically confusing daily tasks is parking. Traveling around in cities or unfamiliar neighborhoods, drivers are wasting valuable time and money trying to find the ideal parking spot. At the same time, the home parking garage is still a piece of equipment that has yet to fully be integrated into the digital home.

However, ParqEx has developed a unique and innovative system for parking garages with their solution to smart home tech new innovations. From a mobile device, users can open garages for themselves or others. The system for the user to enter the garage is called Access+. This makes life much easier because you do not have to get out of your car or worry about a ticket. You also know the pricing clearly and can pay through your phone.

Similarly, GuestParq allows the user to open a garage or gate for a guest. In this case, the user may be opening their home garage to a guest that would ordinarily not have access. This makes life much more easy and convenient for the user.

Nest

The Nest kicked off the era of smart home tech. This beautiful device automatically adjusts the temperature in the home based on personalized settings and can be controlled by a smartphone. Google’s multi-billion dollar purchase of this company put additional fuel in the company’s growth. It is a core part of the Google system and works perfectly with the new Google Home device.

Today, Nest is a symbol for all things smart home technology including advanced home video recorders, lighting, doorbells, locks and fire detectors. Additionally, there are thousands of devices that may integrate with the Nest platform to create a comprehensive home management system.

ParqEx is a leading smart parking software platform which helps drivers find ideal spots while saving time and money. The Access+ and GuestParq features allow drivers to open gates and garage doors from the convenience of their smartphone as well. For more information, please contact us.

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ParqEx was founded on a dedication to making life easier through technology and we are so excited about smart homes that we’ve opened an awesome Smart Home Giveaway! One lucky person can win our drawing for an entire smart home starter kit, everything you need to start your very own start home environment.

The Smart Home Giveaway

The founding principles of ParqEx are to make parking easier through wireless technology. Smart homes offer many benefits through technology, similar to how we solve parking problems with smart parking technology. We want to bring the joy of wireless life to someone new and have put together a fantastic smart home starter package. With this smart home starter kit, you can establish the interactive AI center of your smart home, get to know the essential features, and inspire yourself to invent a truly personalized smart home for your household. Sweepstakes submissions are open right now, so anyone who has been dreaming of a new smart home is invited to enter their name.

Amazon Alexa Smart Home Giveaway

What’s Included in the Smart Home Kit?

• Amazon Echo Plus
• Amazon Echo Dot
• 2 Philips 60W Smart LED Bulbs – Soft White
• 2 Jinvoo Smart Power Outlets
• Smart Power Strip – 4 Outlets and 4 USB Ports
• VIP ParqEx Treatment and Service Credit

We thought long and hard about what to include in our smart home giveaway and carefully selected these items because together they are the perfect way to get started on your very own smart home. To run every one of these devices, you only need one smart home app: Alexa. All you have to do is activate a skill, then name your devices so that Alexa can respond to them by name.

From your AI hub to the smarten-anything outlets, you can control the lighting and upgrade ‘dumb’ electronic devices into your smart home experience. Let’s explore what’s inside and how you can make amazing use of these smart home assets in your household!

Amazon Alexa – Echo Plus

The Echo Plus the ‘brains’ of the operation. It is a smart home hub and a superb smart speaker combined into one. You can control your entire smart home by talking to Alexa through the elegant black tower of the Echo Plus.

“A one-box smart home solution”

-Tech Radar

Alexa, your helpful AI voice assistant, lives in the Echo Plus like I Dream of Genie lived in her lamp. All you have to do is say “Alexa” and she will start to listen, then help you in any way she can. While most people think of smart home hubs as something like their wireless router, Alexa is much more than a hub got devices. Her inherent capabilities are amazing, even without a single smart home device connected. With nothing but a connection to the internet and a little coordination through a mobile device, Alexa can answer trivia questions, sing you songs, help your child study, keep your calendar, and set timers.

Alexa is named after the legendary lost library in Alexandria

– Wirecutter

Alexa is friendly, upbeat, and interactively helpful. You can set up custom commands through her app or you can converse with her to find hilarious easter egg features. The Echo Plus itself has Dolby sound quality and amazing sound detection. It even ‘looks’ at you when you speak the command word.

Amazon Echo Dot

The Echo Dot is like a satellite extension to the Echo Plus. The Dot’s most important function is as an additional speaker and receiver for your smart home. As cool as the Echo Plus is, it’s listening and broadcasting abilities are not infinite. The Dot allows you to continue conversing with your smart home in rooms that the hub cannot reach.

Most people put their smart home hub in their living room, the center of family activity. A Dot in your bedroom or kitchen can allow you to extend the functionality and your access to smart home features even when you are ‘out of earshot’ of Alexa’s hub.

Independent Extension

Interestingly, having an Echo Dot can also extend your smart home capabilities outside of the home itself. It can be used anywhere with a wifi network and a power source. You can move it into the backyard for a smart-barbecue, hook up your car with a wireless hotspot for a smart car on the go, or even take it with you to a vacation home. With your connected phone or tablet, it can function as an independent smart home hub, complete with Alexa.

2 Philips 60W Smart LED Bulbs – Soft White

After the hub itself, there is nothing more essential to a smart home than smart bulbs. For all the crazy gadgets out there, there is something inherently useful and satisfying about being able to turn on and off your lights with a word. We chose the Philips 60W Equivalent LED bulbs because they are the best of the best. Philips is the leading brand in smart home lighting with undeniable quality, performance, and longevity. The LEDs are much cooler and more energy-efficiently than a traditional incandescent bulb.

“Alexa, turn the Living Room Light off.”

“Okay!”

Of course, these don’t just turn on and off with a word. Smart lights are also capable of percentage power, essentially giving you a smart-dimmer for any room you use them in, and you can pick any number between 0 and 100%. This can allow you to set the mood in the evenings, use the lights as overhead night-lights for midnight snacks and children, then bring the lights up to full brightness when it’s time to find the missing remote.

“Alexa, set the Kitchen Light to 20%”

“Okay!”

With two bulbs to start with, you can ‘smarten’ the lighting for any two rooms in your home. Pick the two locations you use most often, and least want to walk to the light switch time and time again. We’re sure you’ll fall in love with smart bulbs immediately and soon you’ll be putting together a unique collection for every fixture in your home.

2 Jinvoo Smart Outlets

And if you thought smart lights were cool, wait until you discover the possibilities of a smart outlet. There are literally hundreds of smart home and IoT devices we could have chosen from for this starter kit, but smart outlets put the power in your hands. These little gadgets, you can turn almost any ‘dumb’ electronic device into a smart device. All you have to do is plug the outlet into the wall, then plug the device into the smart outlet. Then turn off the device.

Smart outlets give you simple on/off control of any device plugged in through them by controlling the flow of electricity. Lamps with oddly sized bulbs can still become smart lamps through an outlet. Fans can be made smart-fans with this simple power passthrough. You can start your coffee maker in the morning while lying in bed or even use them for smart parenting by turning off game consoles or wifi routers on a schedule. The possibilities are endless, just imagine anything you want to turn off or on with a command, on a schedule, or even through an app while you’re away from home.

Jinvoo Smart Power Strip

Our last physical device in the sweepstakes goodie bag is a Jinvoo smart power strip. Smart power strips are one of the latest additions to smart home technology, combining the innovation of the smart outlet with the convenience of an all-in-one power strip. This model has four conventional three-prong outlets and four fast-charging USB ports, allowing you to provide power through both types of common power ports.

Power Strip Includes

• 4 Individual Smart Outlets
• 4 High-Speed Charging USB Smart Ports

But it doesn’t stop there. The magic of a smart power strip is that each individual port is smart-controlled with its own separate entry and name. This means you’re actually getting a total of six smart power sources to control individually and four separate smart USB ports. That’s ten normal powered devices that can become delightful additions to your uniquely personalized smart home.

ParqEx Smart Parking Product / Service Offering:

ParqEx is the Private Parking Technology Platform.  Property owners and managers use our proprietary technology to increase the value of their parking spaces that are often underutilized and/or difficult to manage.  The platform is a set of modular solutions that can be implemented on their own or packaged together depending on the needs of a given customer or property.  Four of the key solutions include:

Marketplace

provides property owners with the ability to increase income by facilitating rentals to drivers looking for a place to park.  The owners set the availability and price, and we handle the rest. Our supply comes from a wide variety of customers and property types – everything from developers with large open lots, to non-profits with a few spots, to individual homeowners with one garage spot.

Access+

offers a better way to provide access to secure parking locations by controlling doors and gates through the ParqEx mobile app.  When compared with traditional opening methods such as fobs and “clickers”, this proprietary “Internet of Things” (IoT) technology solution is inexpensive to install, saves operating costs, and reduces management hassle.

GuestParq

designed primarily for apartment and condominium buildings, this plug-and-play offering is an amenity that improves the guest parking experience for residents, guests, and managers alike. It improves the entire process: from reserving a spot to arriving at the building to managing who should be parking in what spot – all while capturing important usage data over time.

Enforcer

provides easy to use tools to ensure that the correct vehicles are parked in the appropriate locations. This offering supports anyone who is self-managing their parking and wants to have better information at their fingertips to do so more efficiently.

ParqEx is accessible via a web-based app (app.parqex.com) and mobile apps for iOS and Android.

ParqEx VIP Treatment

Finally, our lucky sweepstakes winner will not only get all the convenience and fun of this complete smart home starter package, we will also be rewarding the winner with exclusive ParqEx VIP treatment. We will make you feel like a star of the new wireless world. First, you get access to premier options through the ParqEx app including better parking spaces, VIP planning features, and a full suite of special services we provide.

$50 in Parking Credit in Prime Locations

Just to start with, the winner will find themselves the proud owner of $50 in premium ParqEx credit. Leave behind your worries about parking on busy streets or paying overcharged public parking lots and garages. You will be able to book parking for free in prime locations around our hotspots of Chicago, Milwaukee, along with any premier locations available across the country.

VIP Access to Premier Options

Our team is constantly trying to bring a better experience to loyal ParqEx users and this has resulted in a number of premier options through our app and membership choices. The lucky winner of the giveaway will get premier access to our best options with their pick in how to use them. From booking spaces at the last minute to renting out spots in your own driveway or even a parking lot, we’re ready to provide with VIP exclusive customer service.

Try our Access+ Technology (Digital Garage Door Opener)

And in the wonderful spirit of smart home convenience, you get to try ParqEx Access+ (Digital Garage Door Opener). Through our app, you will be able to try our Access+ technology at our select parking locations to open a gate or garage door from the ParqEx app. But it doesn’t stop there. You can also provide garage door access to friends, family members, and approved visitors and only for as long as you want to provide access. This makes garage door ownership (and keeping track of garage door openers) so much easier!

Enter To Win the Smart Home Giveaway Today!

This offer won’t last forever, and there can only be one lucky winner. If you love smart homes but don’t have one of your own yet, put your name into the running. Now is your chance to start an elite smart home of your own, uniquely designed to suit your needs and make your house immensely cool. Great for homeowners and renters, real estate professionals and even to take along to vacation homes, this kit is the perfect way to start your amazing smart home experience. Join our sweepstakes today!

For more information about the Smart Home Giveaway click here!

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It’s a fascinating topic in a variety of contexts. But for us, the most compelling thing to watch may be how this new age of driverless cars will impact parking in cities like Chicago. Join us for a discussion on the evolution of autonomous driving, the continued (but changing) needs for parking spots, and a look at what the future may hold.

Some Definitions to Start

One of the most difficult aspects of discussing this topic tends to be the various terms. It’s tempting, for example, to consider driverless, autonomous and connected interchangeably. In reality, though, the differences between these terms are subtle but important:

• Connected cars. The first step of the driverless evolution is already in existence today. Connected cars communicate both with the driver, and with other cars on the road to improve safety for all. Features include brake and parking assistants, real-time route calculations, and more.
• Autonomous cars. As the name suggests, autonomous vehicles can navigate most everyday traffic situations on their own. Drivers can and should still interject as needed, but in well-known traffic areas, Tesla (and a handful of other cars) can already drive relatively well on their own.
• Driverless cars describe the potential end point of the technology. They are connected to a larger network, and can drive entirely on their own; in fact, they won’t require a driver at all. Google’s Waymo prototype is the closest we have gotten to this technology so far.

The State of the Driverless Market

We’re at an exciting but also uncertain point of the driverless explosions. As mentioned above, only prototypes of the above-mentioned final step of the process exist. At the same time, the technology is now advanced enough that within a few years, driverless will move from a novelty to a well-known (if expensive) alternative.

In fact, some estimates put the sales of fully autonomous vehicles at $6 billion and partially autonomous vehicles at $36 billion by 2025. Experts believe that by 2030, we should see an adoption rate of at least 30% among car-owning consumers.

We’re not there yet. In fact, a recent survey showed that almost half (49%) of motorists in the UK are not interested in the technology. Given the benefits of driverless cars, from safer roads to traffic efficiency, that number will begin to drop as the technology becomes more easily available. In the meantime, it’s up to startups like us to determine just how this fast-growing market will impact parking, especially in urban areas like Chicago.

The Need for Parking in Crowded Areas

Anyone familiar with Chicago parking apps of any kind is already familiar with a problem shared by countless others in metropolitan areas. Parking is an annoying complication of everyday life. In addition to countless local news stories outlining the issues, Chicago has actually been named the Worst Place to Park a Car based on both high cost and low availability of spots. Other metropolitan areas, of course, are not far behind.

And yet, parking is crucial. If you own a car, you need to find a place for it. Given that the average car is idle 95% of the time, the parking spot should be a crucial consideration for any vehicle owner.

At the same time, lack of space is not necessarily a problem. A recent study found that the United States has roughly 1 billion parking spots, four times as many as vehicles existing in the country today. Lack of space is not the issue; finding the right parking spot quickly and easily is.

That’s what makes markets like Chicago so perfect for parking apps and startups like ours. We help homeowners, property managers, and REITs take advantage of the space they already own, while providing better parking possibilities for drivers. Driverless parking will change that dynamic, but it will not eliminate it.

Evolving Parking Needs in the Age of Driverless Cars

Driverless cars will streamline traffic, and improve convenience for all that take advantage of it. The need to own your own vehicle will be reduced, and with less cars on the road, fewer parking spots will be necessary. As researcher Alain Kornhause told PC World last year,

“the biggest impact (of autonomous vehicles) is going to be on parking. We aren’t going to need it, definitely not in the places we have it now… If I go to a football game, my car doesn’t need to stay with me. If I’m at the office, it doesn’t need to be there. The current shopping center with the sea of parking around it—that’s dead.”

It’s a natural conclusion: if you don’t own a car, you don’t have to worry about parking it. But at the same time, these cars still need a space where they can be kept until they’re needed again. Parking is still necessary; just different.

For starters, as ChicagoInno points out, transportation needs will need to be customized depending on their audience. A high-profile real estate developer, for example, will probably require a different service (and car) than a college student just trying to get to campus. That degree of customization will require a higher number of individual self-driving cars, available to a multitude of audiences at short notice.

Especially if you’re renting out your parking spot through an app like ParqEx, driverless cars could present another opportunity. Now, you can rent the space not to individuals, but to autonomous vehicle companies looking to ‘store’ their cars before the next trip. Ideal parking spots would likely be in residential areas, making your spaces a perfect base for their needs.

A Long-Term Solution to a Persistent Problem

We’re not there yet. Autonomous driving has captured the headlines consistently over the past few months and even years, but has not yet reached a point of go-to-market readiness for the transportation area. And even when it does, adoption will be slowly, and we may not get to see a 100% adoption rate of driverless cars for another 80 years.

But at the same time, the technology is undoubtedly advancing. Google and Uber are expanding their test markets, and Tesla is already rolling out semi-autonomous platforms on all of its vehicles. If you’re planning to monetize your space for parking spots, understanding the future of this technology is crucial for long-term viability.

Parking, especially in urban areas, is a problem. The bad news for car owners, and the good news for you if you’re renting out space, is that it won’t stop being a problem anytime soon. As long as people want to visit your area, they’ll need parking spots, whether that be for their own vehicles of the driverless alternatives that got them there.

And when that happens, you can monetize the opportunity with a connected car app like ParqEx. In fact, our Private Parking Marketplace allows you to make money from your vacant space if you have it, or easily find parking alternatives if you need them. Contact us to learn more and sign up.

The post The Evolution of Parking in a World of Driverless Cars appeared first on ParqEx.

Want to know more about these awesome advancements? If so, you’ve come to the right place! In this article we will explore three of the most exciting new trends in vehicle technology, how they might affect your day-to-day life, and how they’ll change your habits for the better in the near future.

Vehicle Communication

After a long 12 years of research, vehicle-to-vehicle communication will officially hit the market this year via the 2017 Cadillac CTS. While the technology will be extremely limited at first due to a lack of similarly equipped vehicles on the road to “talk” to, it will still give the driver some advantages, such as communicating with certain traffic lights.

Moreover, it will pave the way for even more of this incredible new technology in the future, which will eventually have the ability to prevent accidents through the use of cameras and other information-gathering systems and an advanced wireless car-to-car communication system.

While it may take a while to grow to that point, Cadillac is taking the most important and most difficult baby steps in the right direction.

Autonomous Driving

As proven by Tesla, Uber, and a few other companies in 2016, self-driving cars are here to stay. Not only that, but they are set to make some big advancements this year.

For instance, Volvo will be releasing 100 autonomous cars onto Swedish roads in the next year in order to 1) give the public a chance to experience a ride without a driver, and 2) test this new technology in the quest for a “death-proof vehicle”. The company hopes to make this ultra-safe car available to the public by the year 2020.

Additionally, companies such as Ford, GM, and BMW will be releasing self-driving fleets of their own. Finally—and most impressively—Tesla is scheduled to send a self-driving car on a trip from New York to LA before year’s end.

Improved Electric Cars

As if self-driving cars aren’t cool enough, it looks like 2017 will be a big year for electric cars as well. Hopefully this advancement signals the beginning of the end of our dependence on fossil fuels, and a step toward a greener, brighter tomorrow.

Not to be outdone by the Nissan Leaf—which was upgraded last year and now boasts an impressive 107-mile range—Chevrolet has announced that its new Bolt EV will have an increased range of up to 200 miles. This is an incredible step in the right direction for electric vehicles, as the longer range makes them a far more practical option. Additionally, the Ford Focus Electric will become a 100-mile car, meaning those looking for a lower-priced option will not be disappointed with the range possibilities in their budget category.

Smart Parking

Clearly, vehicle manufacturers have seen just how important it is to keep up with the demand for newer and more efficient technology. We at ParqEx have seen the light as well, and we’re taking steps to make parking easier than ever through the use of “internet of things” technology. We hope to work with car manufacturers toward an ultimate goal of less traffic congestion and a hassle-free driving experience for all.

Are you interested in learning more about Using Internet of Things and new trends in parking technology? Please have a look around our website or contact us with questions. After reading more about us, we are sure you will want to sign up for an account right away in order to take full advantage of our peer-to-peer sharing platform and our amazing new technology.

The post Technology is changing the auto industry appeared first on ParqEx.