Traffic, Weather, and Parking - O, My!

The holy trinity of connected services in cars is traffic, weather, and parking.?At TechInsights, our consumer surveys conducted around the world have proven out the importance of these three applications time and again regardless of location or respondent demographics.

It is sometimes surprising that car makers stray from trying to refine their traffic, weather, and parking services.?Many car makers are focused on implementing streaming audio apps and in-dash TikTok integrations.?

Whenever we begin a journey traffic, weather, and parking are the three things we tend to care most about. ?What will the traffic be along my route??What does the weather look like??Will there be parking at my destination?

Progress is being made in delivering traffic, weather, and parking information in a timely and intelligent manner in new cars.?Two companies, in particular, stand out for their innovative efforts in this regard: Parkopedia and TrafficLand.

Parkopedia is the dominant global supplier of in-vehicle parking solutions.?The company has lately been breaking new ground in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz AG.

• Parkopedia’s in-car parking reservations are now available in Mercedes-Benz vehicles (with the automaker’s ‘MBUX’ infotainment system) encompassing over 5,000 locations in North America
• Overall, Parkopedia’s on-demand parking payments platform is now available across 14 European countries, with reservations possible in four countries
• Drivers also receive Parkopedia’s on- and off-street parking data including dynamic availability predictions in London and Stuttgart

Parkopedia has achieved the trifecta of finding, reserving, and paying for parking.?This single application, more than any other, has identified and eliminated the phenomenon of “parking anxiety.”?No auto maker wants a customer to think twice about driving their car to an event out of a fear of failing to find parking.

With consumers in a post-pandemic world jumping back into their cars to get around parking’s relevance to connected car service portfolios couldn’t be greater.?Parkopedia is simply taking it further by enabling the creation of reservations and supporting payments.

Traffic and weather, the other two elements in the connected services trinity, are now served by TrafficLand, which has launched a novel in-vehicle integration in partnership with Bosch called TrafficLand360.?TrafficLand360 allows a driver to preview a chosen route with the help of real-time access to live traffic camera feeds and road weather in the form of temperature and precipitation data.

Like Parkopedia, Trafficland offers a global solution:

• TrafficLand’s worldwide network provides more live video from public agency traffic cameras than any other company.
• TrafficLand has been evolving its products and services to create a more helpful and engaging driver experience—conveying valuable route guidance and information while mitigating distraction.
• Trafficland’s map-based display makes it easy to see camera locations and quickly gain situational awareness about the roadway conditions they show.
• Location-based weather data is provided for each camera available on the TrafficLand network.

Parkopedia and TrafficLand are introducing new connected car experiences focused around the most in-demand connected services in the car.?Parking, traffic, and weather are all solutions built around a combination of real-time and predictive data.

Parking, in particular, is a challenging solution as predicting the availability of parking comes down to a binary reality – either parking will be available at your arrival time or it won’t.?If parking might not be available by the time you arrive at your destination, it may be time to reserve a spot.

Similarly, traffic information is built on predictions.?The driver wants to know what traffic will be like all along a preferred route.?For traffic, though, getting the real-time view enabled by TrafficLand360 can help a driver understand how the traffic situation is evolving in real-time.?This is a first.

Understanding traffic, weather, and parking both in real time and as predicted are increasingly essential to daily driving behaviors.?Parkopedia and TrafficLand have taken decades to evolve their solutions that are just arriving in dashboards now. One might suggest - don't leave home without them.