Parking perfection

Singapore — Nobody likes spending their precious time driving around a labyrinth of multi-storey car parks, searching for vacant lots that, invariably, get taken up by the car in front.

Weekends especially have become a driver’s nightmare as everyone seemingly heads for the same mall and same car park as you. It really does start to take some of the pleasure out of driving.

Now, a new smartphone app has arrived that is designed to take all of the guesswork out of locating the nearest parking space.

Called Park&Go @SG, the app has been designed by the Singapore division of Continental, a company normally associated with tyres.

The brand is an international research and development giant covering all areas of automotive electronics and communications systems and supplies specialist original equipment electronic parts found in many cars today.

ARRIVE, THEN LEAVE

Continental points out that planning a stress-free car journey is not simply about using the most efficient routes, but also about having an immediate parking solution at your destination. Often the most stressful part is not the drive itself, but where to leave your car at the end of your journey.

Park&Go @SG provides real-time information on vacant parking spots at all HDB car parks, along with a growing number of multi-storey car parks at commercial and government buildings as well as shopping malls.

The free app works via an island-wide map that navigates drivers to currently available parking spaces.

Interpretive software can work out parking space availability in advance before you have reached your destination. And a built-in SMS service also alerts users about the price of the suggested parking spot.

All of this local parking information that Park&Go @SG provides is serviced by the Continental Backend Platform that uses real-time information from HDB’s computer servers for round-the-clock parking information.

DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL

The app will be updated as new features come online. These will include the introduction of real-time GPS guidance on available handicap parking spaces here as well as the location of the nearest car-washing bays. In this respect, Continental says the potential for this home-grown app to develop into an automotive assistant covering a huge range of driving needs in the future is considerable.

The app is available here for mobile Android devices and can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store. An iOS version is due later this year.

Ralf Lenniger, senior vice-president for Interior Electronics Solutions at Continental Automotive, said: “Applications like Park&Go @SG and Continental Backend Platform are like inter-connected dots that we will eventually build upon and from which we will establish the basic foundation for the future implementation of an intelligent future mobility and automated driving.”