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Ford addresses parking frustration

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 30 Jun 2016
Ford is experimenting with different ways to solve parking issues in crowded cities.
Ford is experimenting with different ways to solve parking issues in crowded cities.

Ford has said it will experiment with different solutions to try and solve the issue of finding parking in crowded cities.

The company said this week it would partner with mobile app valet service, Cheyaoshi, and smart parking developer, Ding Ding, to create apps that could address this problem.

The experiments will take place in the Asia Pacific region, where the problem is particularly acute.

"For millions of commuters in Asia Pacific, finding parking comes at the cost of wasted time and fuel," said John Larsen, director at Ford smart mobility for the region.

"All this adds to longer commutes, worsening congestion and higher stress."

According to a survey carried out by the company across the Asia Pacific, 20% of respondents said their commute is the worst part of their day, while 34% said they find it inconvenient, and 33% said it was getting worse.

Nearly 20% cited the primary reason for a bad commute was trying to find a parking space.

At Ford's Asia Pacific headquarters in Shanghai's Lujiazui financial district, 40% of employees said in an internal survey they spend up to 20 minutes every day finding parking near the office.

To solve this problem, the company found available and cheaper parking a kilometre away from the office. Ford and Cheyaoshi then developed a valet app to ferry employees' cars back and forth.

Participants used the app to have a valet meet them at the Ford office in the morning, and then parked the car in the parking further away. At the end of the day, employees could either have the car delivered to the office, or anywhere within a 2.5km radius.

The other partnership, with Ding Ding, was a parking space lock experiment that tries to solve the problem of urban parking through the sharing economy.

Ford's in-car infotainment system, Sync, can be used to activate and deactivate a physical parking space lock on one of tens of thousands of parking spaces on Ding Ding's platform, granting users exclusive use of conveniently located parking spaces.

Once a driver has locked a parking space, s/he can also use the app to rent it out to other drivers for a share of parking fees, or authorise family and friends to use it for free.

The company has unveiled the experiments ahead of Mobile World Congress Shanghai next week.

It is not yet clear when and if the solutions will be available in SA and the rest of the world.

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