In recent years, the demographic of car owners has become younger, and the number of vehicles has been growing year by year. As the number of cars increases, so does the demand for parking spaces. Some companies want to effectively manage employee parking to prevent the company’s parking lot from being used as a long-term personal garage. Department stores and shopping malls hope to increase foot traffic and improve business, so helping customers quickly find a parking space and entering the store to shop is an important strategy. In urban areas where parking is difficult to find, government-run public parking lots hope to provide convenience and solve surrounding traffic congestion caused by parking issues and are willing to improve parking facilities. All these needs are incentives to install an in-seat parking guidance system.
📌 Table of Contents
■ How to determine if a parking lot needs an in-seat parking guidance system? What factors need to be considered?
■ What equipment does a complete in-seat parking guidance system include?
■ What are the mainstream in-seat parking guidance systems on the market? Understand the differences between systems briefly!
■ Conclusion
How do you determine if a parking lot needs an in-seat parking guidance system? What factors need to be considered?
First, we need to distinguish that automatic license plate recognition at parking gates and in-seat parking guidance are two completely different systems. Although they are related, they are basically two independently operating systems! This article mainly discusses the in-seat parking guidance system and the factors that need to be considered before installation.
- Insufficient parking spaces require a parking guidance system to reduce the time drivers spend searching for a spot.
- Frequent problems with incorrect display of available spaces; showing available spots when there are none, or closing the gate when spots are available.
- VIP or manager spaces being mistakenly occupied by visitors, or monthly-pass spaces being taken by hourly parkers, leading to complaints when discovered too late.
- Company parking lots being occupied long-term by some employees who use them as their personal garages.
- Specific charging station spaces being used as regular spots, leading to overtime occupation.
- Automatically guiding reserved vehicles to designated spaces to prevent them from parking in others’ spots.
- Parking spaces are often insufficient, and there is a desire to increase the turnover rate.
- Provide a different parking experience for customers and enhance the corporate image.
Before installation, please determine which of these factors are pain points. After all, a parking guidance system is a significant investment, and careful consideration and planning beforehand are essential.
What equipment does a complete in-seat parking guidance system include?
What is a Parking Guidance System?
Due to the rich nuances of the Chinese language, swapping the order of certain characters can still convey the same meaning. As a result, there are many different terms in the market—such as Parking Guidance, Parking Direction, Space Guidance, or Space Direction—all of which refer to the same concept.
The primary purpose of a parking guidance system is to help drivers quickly locate an available parking space. But how does the system work? And what equipment does a complete on- parking guidance system include? What are the functions of these components?
- Parking Management Host: This is the heart of the entire parking guidance system. Its functions include license plate recognition and recording of entry/exit information, system alerts, statistical reports, creating parking lists, and setting various parking management parameters.
- Parking Space Detection Camera: Used to detect if a vehicle is parked in a space, and also to display the status of the space with lights, allowing drivers to quickly identify vacant spots.
- Parking Space Indicator Light: Displays the number of available spaces and the direction to find parking, guiding drivers in the correct direction.
- Entrance/Exit Gate Barrier: Controls vehicle entry and exit from the parking lot.
- Automatic Vehicle Identification System: Identifies the identity of the incoming vehicle to determine if it can enter the parking lot and simultaneously takes photos and saves them for future inquiry. The two most common methods currently used on the market are RFID (ETC) and license plate recognition cameras.
- Parking Space Display: Shows the total number of available spaces in the entire parking lot and on each floor.
- Find-My-Car Kiosk: When a driver forgets where their vehicle is parked, they can use this kiosk to quickly find its location. The kiosk supports fuzzy matching, allowing drivers to find their vehicle’s parking space by entering a partial license plate number.
- Automatic Payment Machine: Commonly used in paid parking lots, this unmanned payment mechanism can save a lot of manpower and prevent human errors.
📖 Further reading：In-seat parking guidance system operation video
What are the mainstream parking guidance systems on the market? Understand the differences between systems briefly!
The operating principles of parking guidance systems are largely similar. The main differences lie in the parking management software functions and the parking space detection methods. Currently, there are three main methods for in-seat detection:
- Ultrasonic-Detector: Uses the principle of ultrasonic transmission and reflection to detect whether a vehicle is parked in space. This detection method requires the installation of an ultrasonic device above each parking space.
- Induction Detection: The detection method is like the operating principle of ultrasonic devices, both using induction to detect whether a vehicle is parked in a space. The biggest difference between the two devices is that one is installed above the parking space, while the other must be buried inside the parking space.
- Video-Based Recognition: Uses advanced image algorithms to detect if there is a car in space. Due to the significant improvement in DSP chip computing power and algorithms, one camera can now cover three parking spaces and perform license plate recognition at the same time. Because it can recognize the license plate of the vehicle in space, this function gives the in-seat parking guidance system a wider range of applications.
Conclusion
Based on the evaluation of system functions and cost, the video detection-based in-seat parking guidance system offers a broader range of applications and functions. The overall installation and maintenance costs are not significantly different, or are even lower, compared to the ultrasonic and geomagnetic detection methods. It seems that the video detection-based in-seat parking guidance system is a more expandable and forward-looking system. There is no fixed model for choosing an in-seat parking guidance system; the selection should be primarily based on the needs of the parking lot itself. In this article, our team has presented the pros and cons of different systems to provide a reference for owners when building a parking lot, which is the main purpose of our writing this article.
📖 Further reading：Smart parking guidance system