"Where is my car?" Helping system for forgetting where you stopped the car at the parking lot

When confronted with something that I walked aiming at my car confidently, I got embarrassed with another car, or forgot about the rank of the block name of the block where I parked the car in an underground parking lot like a maze Okay, there are many people who have experienced walking round and round.

A convenient "car search system" is in CaliforniaSanta MonicaIt was introduced at the shopping mall. Although the system making full use of the surveillance camera network operating for 24 hours seems to have a concern in terms of privacy, it is convenient, but it has been popular with users so far so far.

Details are as below.Finding lost cars in Santa Monica: Shopping mall installs camera-based 'Find Your Car' system - latimes.com

Santa Monica's shopping mall "Santa Monica Place"Introduced in the parking lot of 2000 cars combined with the surveillance camera network and license plate reading technology, customers who forgot parking positions enter their car number on the touch-panel type terminal installed in the store Then, the picture of the car and the position where the stop is displayed are displayed. We are going to use the camera network to display "full car" on the bulletin board and to monitor the car's arrival and departure to guide the incoming car to the vacant space for "car search". In New YorkPark AssistIt was developed by the company.

According to a questionnaire survey conducted in the UK, 44% of the drivers have experienced "forgetting the parking position", and in a huge mall with a large parking lot, it is said to be "looking for free space" before shopping "Shopping car" after shopping can be one of the big reasons to feel shopping stuff. According to Park Assist, the introduction of the parking support system usually leads to a 3 to 5% increase in customers. For people who actually used it in Santa Monica, it is mostly popular, and the number of "direct assist" which searches in the parking lot with a shopper who forgot the parking position on an electric cart driven by a security guard is put on it actually decreased It seems to be.

However, convenient systems seem to have drawbacks as well. In addition to the technical error that there was an area where there was an area where the number of stopped cars could not be read, it was discovered after the introduction, the woman who forgot the parking position was driving and was just purchasing a new car with no license plate yet There was also a case that it was.ChatsworthHolly DiFonzo (30 years old) living in the area felt this system "pretty awesome", but said, "I do not want to know where I am, I think I'm worried," he said, for example, for smartphones We say that there are alternatives such as "car search" application.

San PedroResident Andrea Minnich says, "I am not a celebrity, so I am not concerned about privacy," but as I tried to find a car on the touch panel terminal I remembered that I did not remember my car number He seems to have noticed.


Park Assist's parking lot management system has been introduced to Australian shopping centers and Brisbane airports so far, and it is said that plans are to be introduced at each store in IKEA in the beginning of the Netherlands in Europe. Also, in collaboration with Amano McGann of Minneapolis, which exclusively sells Park Assist products in the United States, when a parking ticket is inserted into a terminal installed in a store, we are developing a system that knows the parking position and does not need a car number, The new system is planned to be introduced in a few months from another shopping mall located several miles from Santa Monica.

It is the same as Santa Monica PlaceMacerichCompany to runSacramentoMallArden Fair MallIn collaboration with the police, it seems that they installed a license plate reading device on guard vehicles that circulate inside the parking lot. In this project, if there is a vehicle that matches the number on the "blacklist" of the Ministry of Justice, the security guards identify the driver by the image of the surveillance camera and notify the police, so that the stolen vehicle 44 I found a base, I was able to arrest 38 people.

Although a system that combines surveillance cameras and license plate reading technology is said to be effective as a security measure at government buildings and airports, at the parking lot of the shopping mall, "I check the number of the car unknowingly It is not a pleasant thing for the driver without having anything particular to do with it "that is being done".

In the law of the United States, it is said that the picture taken in "public place" is owned by the photographer and can be freely used / disclosed, but the police seems to be able to request the release of the picture. Santa Monica Place says that information such as images and license plates by surveillance cameras are "confidential but shared if requested by the police", but for example, "unintended use" such as "debt collection comes to search for cars" We are worried that there is the possibility that privacy may be infringed by "We".