When our knowledge, which increases day by day, is used in a cumulative way, it reveals the technological developments of today. We cannot talk about today's cars without the invention of the wheel, a modern lifestyle without electricity, and this article you are reading without the invention of writing. However, if these inventions remained the same as the first day and were not powered by other inventions and ideas, the wheel would not be more than a primitive load-carrying vehicle, far back from its present potential. Everything we use in our daily life is the product of a cycle of trial and error that has been going on for hundreds of years. Mankind constantly manipulates and develops himself and his environment for an optimal life. In order for a product to find a buyer in today's conditions, either in terms of its functional performance or comfort, that product must be constantly subject to change. Our article today will be about the evolution of the parking experience of vehicle users to its current state with technological developments and what awaits us in this regard in the future.
When we want to have an idea about the future on any subject, the first source we turn to is the past. If we want to have an accurate idea about the future state of a process, it is important to reach the maximum level of knowledge that we can about its past. Unfortunately, resources to research on the history of parking modern transport are limited.
The birth of the modern car took place in 1886 as a result of Karl Benz's hard work. At the beginning of the 20th century, these vehicles, which gained popularity in many parts of the world, especially in the United States, brought along numerous rules and responsibilities for their use. Assuming that there is only one vehicle per household, there is an incredibly high number of vehicles and the need for parking space created by these cars. Although cars were not as common as today in the 1900s, it did not take long before large cities needed parking space. According to Eran Ben-Joseph, a professor of landscape architecture and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there were two different parking techniques in the United States in the early 1900s. These techniques, called "Ranking" and "Park", were applied on the roadside since parking areas were not yet created at that time. The sorting technique has been applied by leaving the vehicles one after the other to leave a minimum space with each other, while the parking technique is applied by placing the vehicles at an angle to the roadside and parallel to each other
Parking of motor vehicles on the side of the road is a difficult task for an inexperienced driver, but also a dangerous situation for the vehicle. Especially in the 1900s, when vehicle and tire technologies were in a much more primitive state than today, problems such as the vehicle going on the pavement followed by deterioration of the front wheels and tire bursting were extremely common. For this reason, and due to the disruption of the traffic order by the parked vehicles and the insufficient area of the roadsides, in the 1920s, special areas opened for parking vehicles started to appear in the USA. These paid parking areas, which are mostly established around areas such as shopping malls, spread day by day and have become an important area of interest in city planning today.
Today's Vehicles
It goes without saying that today's vehicles are more advanced in every respect than yesterday. Our vehicles can now comfortably transport large groups of people from one point to another without sacrificing safety at speeds that Karl Benz could not imagine. In doing all this, it keeps the carbon footprint it leaves to a minimum while communicating with the rest of the world. With the instrument panel and voice assistant, it can navigate places it has never been to before, and when the driver reaches the desired location, he gets help from it to park his vehicle. Nowadays, every feature that seems commonplace to us in a car is almost like magic to the people of two or three generations ago. When this is the case, one asks himself: "What more can we add to our vehicles now?" The answer to this question comes to us in the form of digitalization, internet of things (IOT) and smart transportation.
It should not surprise anyone where today's world understanding, which constantly demands better, stronger and faster, brings us to in the automotive industry. The point where the technologies in this sector have come, especially in terms of speed, is the kind that will make people who lived 50 years ago shocked. Now we produce motors that are more compact, more effective and much more powerful than before [2]. Despite the striking developments in these technical features, the developments in the interior design of motor vehicles, especially in the entertainment systems, have become widespread in only the last 20 years. The screens first entered our vehicles in 1979 with Aston Martin Lagonda and were used as LED dashboards. In the years that followed, car manufacturers began to put radio, sound, temperature and fuel consumption indicators on the screens, and to produce even larger screens to fit all of these. With the touch screen that came with the Buick Riviera in 1986 and the GPS-based navigation system reflected on our screens for the first time in 1990 with the Mazda Eunos Cosmo, the in-car screens, which gradually became the screens that we are used to today, are an important part of the in-car experience, they also make our parking experience much easier with the help of cameras and sensors behind the vehicle.
21st Century Park Experience
Driving and parking is easier than ever before. The developments we have made in the last century on this subject are exciting. So what awaits us in the future? It is obvious that in-vehicle experience will advance in all areas in the future. It is an extremely consistent prediction that there will be a stronger connection between our increasingly smart vehicles and our phones. In addition, although it seems like a distant future to us, the fact that our smart vehicles connect to the Internet of Things network and are in constant communication with other vehicles and the objects around, is one of the most emphasized possibilities in smart vehicle concepts. In this way, traffic will also benefit from the 4th Industrial Revolution and the way for autonomous vehicles will be opened. If this technology is combined with artificial intelligence, the driver will be able to leave the control to the autonomous system not only while parking the vehicle, but also while driving the vehicle. While the vehicle can go and park itself to the desired point, the driver will be able to travel with maximum comfort thanks to the improved in-vehicle experience. The same features can be integrated into public transportation vehicles and these vehicles can be made a part of smart transportation.
The 21st century promises systems that can erase all unwanted aspects of driving and have the potential to further emphasize all the wanted features. Of course, these systems are not things that can be installed tomorrow or next week. Relatively small steps have to be taken and parts of the systems will mature one by one. A tremendous effort is required to produce and combine all these technologies. As parkpilot, we do our part in the technologies of the future, such as smart transportation solutions and the Internet of Things. Are you?