Will we need parking in the future?

It's been a very interesting month for me in the parking world. I've attended a great event to launch an innovative suite of parking software called ParkMaven. At the dinner, we had presentations from the CEO of Parkopedia about automated vehicle technology and the work they are doing on 3D mapping multi-storey car parks to allow autonomous vehicles to park themselves in this environment. UK car park management has certainly come of age and organisations are keen to ensure they are at the forefront of new technologies to help improve car parking operations and their customer experience.

We also had a presentation from UBER and there lead on EV vehicles. They aim to have a completely EV fleet in London by 2025. This inspired me after the event to download the UBER app and try it for the first time and I have to say I'm very impressed with the technology and service.

So how long will it be before I don't need my own car or even possible to find a parking space 5, 10 years? Who knows, the technology is already here in Tesla vehicles which have the full autonomous ability but the software just hasn't been turned on yet.

I can imagine a world not too far away from where cars powered by regenerative electric power, Wi-Fi charging cells in the road or hydrogen fuel cells can continually move around our cities and motorway networks. I would simply have to pick up my phone, order one and away I go. No more road tax, insurance, MOTs, expensive repair and fuel costs. Best of all it would dramatically reduce congestion, air pollution and accidents.

The cars of the future will, however, have to stop or park at sometimes, won't they? Possibly not if fueling technology advances and the software to drive this autonomous world is created or maybe it already has (UBER) it just needs further development user acceptance and testing.

It's a very interesting time for the automotive and parking industry. We must keep pace with developments if we as a society are to reap the rewards.