The automotive industry is changing. The reason behind these changes is the increased inter-connectivity of vehicles and growing demands for connectivity services. The networked world is already making mobility not just simpler, but more to the point, more convenient. The developers of the trive.me start-up have developed a car park app that will help to make life easier for the motorist in the future. Its chief attraction is the smart end-to-end navigation, which directs the user to a free parking space, from there to his destination outside the car park, and then later back to his car - all in real time. A software development kit for the 3D map material for initial installation in a multi-storey car park in Wolfsburg in July 2016 was provided by Heidelberg Mobil International GmbH.
The newly developed product trive.park assists the driver even before he sets off. The travel planner provides the driver with important information on the length of journey and the best route to the free space in the car park in advance. Once he has arrived, a number of different criteria - closeness to the exit for instance - are taken into account to select the most suitable free parking space. The voice navigation, which is specially adapted for use in multi-storey car parks, guides the driver directly to his destination.
With the necessary indoor positioning technology (there is no GPS signal in a multi-storey car park), trive.me is able to overcome restrictions that previously constrained the market.
The clever combination of smartphone sensors, radio signals (Bluetooth, WLAN, GPS and others) and vehicle data sets new standards. Using just one software module, it is possible with trive.park to reach an end-to-end position that works for pedestrians and while the car is being driven. This guarantees maximum precision, while taking the field of application and cost into account.
A further function of trive.park is the automatic "car finder", which can automatically detect the "parked" and "drive away" states: extremely user-friendly, as the parked position is automatically saved; but also essential for car park planning, because this information can also be used to derive occupancy forecasts and reduce the hardware previously used to detect free parking spaces.
For the georeferenced indoor maps with routing and voice command, we found in Heidelberg Mobil an expert in the processing of geographic information, and one capable of successfully implementing the specific adjustments.
"Our trive.park product modules can also be used for reserving a VIP parking spot. This is a great opportunity for the retail trade, which is searching for genuine added value for the cus-tomer, since the end-to-end navigation does not come to an end once the car is parked; the customer can be accompanied or navigated to the shop to the desired article. An appealing method of promotional support," comments Alexander Süssemilch, who is in charge of the development of trive.park.
Since July 2016, the initial installation of trive.park has been available for approx. 1500 parking spaces in a multi-storey car park in Wolfsburg.