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Google Labs launches Android app for finding open parking spots

openspot.googlelabs.com

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Re: Google Labs launches Android app for finding open parking spots

#2

Post by dotBen »

I just downloaded it and surprise surprise there are no spots listed at all in San Francisco.

Ok, perhaps that's because the app is new, or maybe there are just no free spots.

However, in a busy and competitive city like SF I really wonder how useful this is going to be. From my own anecdotal evidence living in SF, if I drive by an empty spot downtown during the day, it's usually gone anyway by the time I've circled around the block to come past it again.

Don't even get me started about the California laws of not using a cell phone while driving...

Re: Google Labs launches Android app for finding open parking spots

#3

Post by moe »

dotBen wrote: post #2

I just downloaded it and surprise surprise there are no spots listed at all in San Francisco. Ok, perhaps that's because the app is new, or maybe there are just no free spots. However, in a busy and competitive city like SF I really wonder how useful this is going to be. From my own anecdotal evidence living in SF, if I drive by an empty spot downtown during the day, it's usually gone anyway by the time I've circled…

Agreed, the current implementation is unlikely to work where it matters - in dense areas.

Now if they'd find a way to couple this to realtime satellite data...

Re: Google Labs launches Android app for finding open parking spots

#8

Post by Automatt-2 »

Hopefully I will be wrong about this, but I'm not expecting this to be very helpful. In dense areas of SF, where I live, open parking spaces last less than a minute - sometimes only a few seconds. If where you're parking isn't densely populated, then you don't need the app at all, because you can easily find a space.

Re: Google Labs launches Android app for finding open parking spots

#9

Post by dolinsky »

I haven't used any of these apps, but being that I live in a high-density area (Hoboken) I know very well how useless this kind of an app would be. Parking in Hoboken (and NYC) consists of the following - circling. Even if you had a realtime stream of all of the metered spots and each meter had some means of determining if it was available or taken, the demand almost always outweighs the supply, so when you really needed this app to work is exactly when it would let you down.

Particular to these apps, do they have an expiration on these spots that are marked empty by the person leaving? After a few false positives I'd be inclined to throw the app away and rely on the circling technique and save the battery life on my phone.

Re: Google Labs launches Android app for finding open parking spots

#10

Post by paul9290 »

Darn i thought this was going to use real time satellite imagery and heat mapping software to determine open spots. Alas, it's people powered and I am very lazy and do not care about the next guy finding a spot. If Im pulling out of a spot whoever is behind me gets the spot and I just meander around them and go on my way. Im not going to pull out my IP device, open this app and then mark soon to be vacant spot as open. I would fair to say the majority acts/feels same way as I do.

Hopefully this will develop and they will use the tech I had hope this would be using. It's a start though.

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