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The feeling of driving a car is exhilarating and freeing indeed. With a caveat, of course! Unless you are driving in the vast empty wilderness of Siberia, you’ve experienced the inconvenience of driving through congested city roads. Getting from point A to point B is made impossible by traffic, pollution, and a dearth of parking. As parking spaces run in short supply, artificial intelligence is turning cars into smart vehicles that know exactly where to park.

AI-powered smart parking

The hunt for parking incurs a huge cost on the motorist, and the city at large, in terms of time, money, pollution, at the least. With artificial intelligence-powered parking solutions, drivers know exactly where a parking space is available. How does this work? Using sensors, vehicles record free parking spots through the city, sending this information to the cloud. This data can then be displayed in real-time to drivers looking for parking, conveniently and quickly guiding them towards available spaces.

Additionally, Artificial Intelligence also makes it possible to identify obstacles in the vehicle’s path. Apart from identifying parking spaces, an Artificial Intelligence-equipped car can even take the traffic volume into account to prevent congestion at a particular parking spot. It also factors in seasonality and patterns to predict if a parking spot will still be free upon the arrival of the drive.

Several auto manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, BMW, and Chevrolet have experimented with creating models that can park autonomously. Artificial Intelligence can also make accurate calculations about whether a car will fit into a parking space and the right to complete the action. This way, cars can be parked in spaces that humans may dismiss as too cramped. At present, the technology is too expensive for most consumer models, but this will expectedly change in the near future.

Efficient parking with Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence in driver-less cars works a bit differently. Once the car drops a passenger at the desired location, it can take off on its own to locate a parking spot. This saves motorists a ton of time since the task of locating a parking spot is now handled by the vehicle, freeing them from having to manually locate a spot.

With fewer cars moving around looking for parking spaces, millions of barrels of oil can be saved from going to waste. This can lower emissions, reduce the environmental footprint, and make cities more liveable.

As the world faces a shortage of parking spaces, city governments need to re-imagine urban communities and pave the way for efficient parking and management. Artificial Intelligence parking will result in efficient utilization of parking spaces, improved utilization of underutilized lots, and time savings for motorists. When smart parking solutions are employed, all cars can collect data on parking lots and transmit them to the cloud. This means motorists find parking exactly when they need it, wherever they need it.