Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution/USPTO
Parking the car, no matter its dimensions, isn’t necessarily everybody’s favorite part of the driving experience, but I won’t insist too much on this for obvious reasons.
Despite new innovative systems seeing daylight in the last few years, including advanced assistance solutions, parking is still a challenge for way too many drivers. Not to mention that finding a parking spot is way too often close to impossible. As such, if you mix the two, you get a very stressed driver who has to park their car in a tight spot just because they have no other option.
Toyota wants to address this horrible experience with new technology.
Described in a patent called “systems and methods for learning driver parking preferences and generating parking recommendations,” Toyota’s idea comes down to training a system to learn where and how you like to park.
The system monitors your parking habits and creates patterns that are then used for future recommendations.
For example, if you like a parking place with particular attributes, such as more space, the system can use onboard sensors and cameras to scan the available spots when entering the parking place. When a match is determined, the system offers recommendations to make it easier for the driver to park the vehicle.
The same is true for certain parking locations. If you typically park close to the entrance of a supermarket, the new technology can learn it, so in the future, it specifically scans the parking lot for available spots.
Toyota says its new concept could come in handy in crowded parking places and when entering a charging station. You can therefore find the right charging point for your car, thus reducing the time needed to park the vehicle and plug it in.
Needless to say, the technology can be further enhanced to collect and offer parking information. For example, Toyota can build a smarter model whose role would be to guess when and how many spots are available in a specific area. This is possible using historical patterns and crowdsourcing. Based on the estimates, the system can compare the available parking information against the favorite parking attributes of the driver. Eventually, it can determine if the vehicle can be parked easily at a certain location before arriving at the address.
Certainly, such an approach would significantly ease parking in crowded places, such as a supermarket, where finding an available spot is often too difficult. Toyota, however, may need many more years before bringing this idea to production vehicles. The technology has only reached the patent stage, so timing information regarding its potential release isn’t yet available. Time will tell if the company is planning to adopt such technology to improve car parking experience.
Toyota wants to address this horrible experience with new technology.
Described in a patent called “systems and methods for learning driver parking preferences and generating parking recommendations,” Toyota’s idea comes down to training a system to learn where and how you like to park.
The system monitors your parking habits and creates patterns that are then used for future recommendations.
For example, if you like a parking place with particular attributes, such as more space, the system can use onboard sensors and cameras to scan the available spots when entering the parking place. When a match is determined, the system offers recommendations to make it easier for the driver to park the vehicle.
The same is true for certain parking locations. If you typically park close to the entrance of a supermarket, the new technology can learn it, so in the future, it specifically scans the parking lot for available spots.
Toyota says its new concept could come in handy in crowded parking places and when entering a charging station. You can therefore find the right charging point for your car, thus reducing the time needed to park the vehicle and plug it in.
Needless to say, the technology can be further enhanced to collect and offer parking information. For example, Toyota can build a smarter model whose role would be to guess when and how many spots are available in a specific area. This is possible using historical patterns and crowdsourcing. Based on the estimates, the system can compare the available parking information against the favorite parking attributes of the driver. Eventually, it can determine if the vehicle can be parked easily at a certain location before arriving at the address.
Certainly, such an approach would significantly ease parking in crowded places, such as a supermarket, where finding an available spot is often too difficult. Toyota, however, may need many more years before bringing this idea to production vehicles. The technology has only reached the patent stage, so timing information regarding its potential release isn’t yet available. Time will tell if the company is planning to adopt such technology to improve car parking experience.
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