By Andrew Liszewski
While it raises privacy issues, I think most parking garage patrons will be happy to turn a blind eye to the Big Brother-ness of the Park Assist system if it means they never forget where they parked their car again. Well to be more specific, they can forget all they want since the system uses a series of high-resolution digital cameras that can not only tell when a spot is empty or full, but can also snap and catalog every vehicle’s license plate number.
So when you get back from shopping, or whatever you were doing, and are a bit fuzzy about where you parked, all you need to do is visit one of the Find-Your-Car kiosks, punch in your plate number, and it will create a you-are-here, you-want-to-be-here map so you can easily find your ride. Of course if your vehicle is associated with any warrants or parking tickets you might be a little shy about leaving it in a Park Assist-equipped garage since I’m sure the Police could ‘request’ access to those constantly updated databases (they use similar license plate scanning techniques) but for the rest of us law abiding citizens, remembering where we parked is now one less thing to have to worry about.
[ Park Assist ] VIA [ CNET ]
I don’t think will have issues with this parking system in place. This kind of parking system will be very useful for the security of not only for your car but also for the whole parking area thus you can be assured that your car is safe.
This one might be ACLU territory. It may be illegal for the police to view the records unless they obtain a search warrant or suspect a crime has been committed. If it is public parking then the public should probably be fairly warned.
I dont see this as any different then what most parking authorities do now. I watched a show that followed the Philadelphia Parking Authority and they drive down the road with a camera mounted on their truck that scans lincense plates for offenders. Now it just makes life easier for them if you drive to the camera! Plus I'd rather people with warrants or outstanding parking tickets get picked up. Get 'em off my street!
I am always careful about ease of convenience and the slippery slope against our freedom. We always make the assumption of honesty and trust when we give over capability to the “authorities”. At what point do these authorities have to prove their intent and facts.