Singapore transport lab develops smart parking app

Singapore has released an app to help drivers find empty parking spaces in shopping centres and housing blocks. The app, Park&Go@SG helps drivers find and navigate to the nearest available parking lot. Drivers can search for lots on a map by filtering through price, distance or availability.

It also predicts how many spaces will be available when they arrive at the destination. When drivers arrive at their selected parking space, the app will send them a text message with the parking fee, location and arrival time.

The app is the first product developed by Singapore’s Intelligent Transport Systems Lab, which was jointly created by the government’s Institute for Infocomm Research, the Technical University of Munich and German car parts manufacturer Continental.

Park&GO@SG uses data from sensors in Housing Development Board car parks and real-time traffic feeds from the Land Transport Authority. It also shows available lots in shopping centres, offices and government buildings. The app could help reduce traffic congestion caused by parking queues and unnecessary emissions from cars, according to Continental.

In the future, it plans to add information on availability of car washers and accessibility for handicapped people in HDB car parks. The app is available for Android smartphones, with an iOS version to be released in the coming months.