In an increasingly connected world, vehicles could not remain on the sidelines. The concept of the connected car is gaining ground among citizens and there are many reasons for this. Among them is the way they help in the parking process, from start to finish. Grupo Next and LetMePark are working together to establish this reality and make it available to all drivers. In this article, we share the fruits of this alliance.
The connected car makes drivers’ lives faster and easier. Connected car technology helps drivers to have maximum control over their vehicles and allows them to know things like location, read the battery status, detect breakdowns, offer wifi to passengers and even interact with the car remotely, allowing, for example, to open and close the car doors.
Beyond the connection with the driver and his phone, connected cars have the ability to connect with the city’s infrastructure thus helping the flow of traffic. It allows to find the fastest and safest routes, avoid traffic jams, reduce fuel consumption, allows to offer different services which result in less stress at the wheel.
This is where the solutions resulting from the partnership between LetMePark and Next Group come into play.
LetMePark and Next Group introduce the novel concept of predictive parking and automatic parking payment in regulated zones for the connected car
LetMePark and Next Group introduce the novel concept of predictive parking and automatic parking payment in regulated zones for the connected car. For the first time in Europe, we are going to see that it is the vehicle that detects what it needs and interacts automatically with the infrastructure around it.
“Thanks to the connected car we anticipate the user’s needs. We use mobility data to develop algorithms that allow us to improve the mobility experience and the services needed by the driver himself, such as satisfying parking needs when the machines observe that behavior pattern”, says Javier Goikoetxea, CEO of Next Group.
But the most innovative service is what they call “parking on street“. This service allows the vehicle to recognize whether it is in a regulated parking zone and issues the ticket automatically. How does it work?
Once a user has parked his vehicle, the system detects whether the vehicle is in a regulated parking zone. If so, the customer receives a notification on the cell phone with the information of the zone and the identified neighborhood. The customer has 90 seconds to cancel or modify the identified zone and neighborhood. After this time has elapsed, parking starts automatically. The system closes the ticket and issues the invoice when the platform detects a vehicle movement, receiving the data from the vehicle’s control panel.
“These developments are a reflection of our ambitious and innovative nature, always thinking outside the box to find new use cases within the mobility sector,” says Uliana Torkunova, CEO of LetMePark.
Our goal is to make life easier for drivers, reduce their anxiety levels when it comes to parking or renewing their tickets, save fuel, decongest traffic, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A set of advantages that will undoubtedly be a valuable incentive to implement this mobility service in cars thanks to the alliance signed between LetMePark and Next Group.
Finally, car enthusiasts with a technological profile are another of the groups most inclined to adopt MaaS. Most are between 18 and 34 years old and use route planners moving at least 4 days a week, with their most frequent trip being from the periphery to the center. Providing mobility alternatives that meet the needs of families with children here is essential.
Grupo Next has a system called Next Smart Car. This is a device that plugs into the vehicle and turns it into a smart car, with functions such as:
- High-speed WiFi connection
- Customized solutions and offers: parking, refueling, maintenance, breakdown service, batteries, tires, and more.
- Vehicle geolocation.
- Analysis of the car’s condition, detection of anomalies, issuing of alerts, and possible solutions.
- Information on journeys, consumption, wear and tear, breakdowns, etc.