It's a common experience: you return to the car park after a day's shopping, only to realize that you've forgotten which the level or stall. A frustrating situation, but most annoyingly, a time consuming one. Just what you don't need at today's customer car park, which is supposed to make the parking experience as pleasant and uncomplicated as possible.
The Car Finder service is designed to offer a simple, yet effective solution to this problem, based on the new Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology. Next to every parking space a so-called "Smart Poster" is set up - essentially a paper poster with an embedded NFC chip. Upon arrival, the parkers simply place their NFC-enabled phone on the scanning point on the poster to download the exact position of their vehicle so they can instantly find it again when returning to the car park.
No need to ever go searching for your car in a large parking garage again.
No need to ever go searching for your car in a large parking garage again.
SKIDATA Car Finder service tells parkers the way to their car
Making life easier for parkers
SKIDATA provides (as a service) the Car Finder application required to upload the location details from the Smart Poster to the NFC-enabled phones.For operators, the key benefit of the Car Finder service lies in providing enhanced customer service to parking patrons; it provides a motivation for customers who have a choice to visit the mall with the more convenient (Car Finder equipped) parking facilities. What is more, Car Finder also opens up possibilities for further information services (downloadable mall maps with shop recommendations, locations of pay points, etc.) or marketing activities (e.g., dispensing of discount vouchers, etc.).
The service as such is attractive for both operators and users, as it relies only on (NFC enabled) mobile phones for data carriers. This also applies to the (already implemented and currently trial tested) scenario where the NFC phone is used for payment and as an electronic parking ticket to operate the entrance and exit barriers. Also, the Smart Posters are cost-efficient and essentially maintenance free, which means low initial investment and operating costs (e.g. in case of replacements, extensions) in return for a high yield in customer satisfaction.
Current developments
First versions of the service are being implemented, with the next steps calling for trial installations at car parks in various parking environments.Contact:
SKIDATA AGHerbert Pamminger, VP Car Access / Airports & Shopping Centres
e-mail: herbert.pamminger@skidata.com
