The future of parking in a connected world
For all the talk about “Smart Cities”, “EVs” and future-focused modes of transport such as electric scooters and hover taxis, ‘parking’ is an often neglected topic. Many commentators seem to believe that, as urban mobility evolves, and as cities become more connected by technology, people will simply no longer need to park. In reality, they almost certainly will. But parking any type of vehicle is likely to be a very different experience from what we’re used to today. Parking apps, EV chargers, and licence-plate-recognition cameras are but three pieces of the puzzle. There will be many more.
Many car park owners and operators are still applying last-century thinking to a 21st Century problem. The past twenty years have brought radical changes to the way citizens of our cities expect to connect, consume and communicate. Long-established sectors such as taxis, hotels and retail are facing existential challenges to the way they operate. Saddled with physical overheads, and out-dated regulations, they are struggling to compete with newer, more nimble models. Is the parking sector headed for a similar fate?
Specifically:
- With innovative car park models appearing overseas, it’s only a matter of time before similar models appear in Australia and New Zealand. How will car park owners and operators adjust to the ‘customer-experience’ expectations of parkers, once they’ve tasted a ‘Premium Economy’ experience in an ‘Economy’-class car park?
- How do car parks provide transparency – i.e. data – around which cars + which drivers are supposed to be parked on their sites on any given day? (and how can that data be leveraged to provide a more personalised parking experience?)
- In the face of increasing car park software and hardware overheads, what sort of innovations in technology + service will allow car parks to drag their already slim operating margins into healthy double-digit figures?
In this dynamic presentation, Rob Brown (Co-Founder and Managing Director of global parking app, KERB) will present a compelling vision for the future of parking, which seeks to challenge and excite – in equal doses – participants at this year’s OUTLOOK conference.