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Comment by alex_c | Hacker News Reader

Set up inexpensive wireless cameras pointed at all street parking spots in the city. (doesn't have to be wireless cameras - pick any method or device that can reliably detect whether a parking spot is empty, cameras are the most flexible). Feed that data to a server, then dish it out to mobile devices (iPhone, etc.) combined with GPS to find the nearest street parking spot. Bonus points for intelligent behavior like not sending two cars to the same spot, or considering which spots are likely to be filled by the time you get there and what other spots are around. Mad bonus points if you work at a high enough level that this feature gets built directly into new cars.

I guess "outlandish" is a bit strong, it feels like it's only a matter of time.

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Set it so that you can book a parking space (for a fee) ahead of time while you're driving there.

Instead of wireless cameras, I thought of some sort of sensor(s) embedded in the ground that could detect something about it (by sight, magnet, etc). If they were embedded poles, they could raise up once the spot was booked to prevent it from being taken, until you arrived, entered your booking code and lowered the barriers.

I think a city might need to be designed in advance for something like this though!

Bonus: auction (a la adwords).

With video, you might not need to physically prevent park-theft - a hefty fine might be sufficient.

On a related note, for the past year I've lived in a city with time-limited parking spaces on the street (i.e. "Two hour parking this block this day" or something similar). I would love to have something that detects when the meter maid comes by the first time and notifies me via sms so I can stay parked for the extra time between when I park and when the mm first comes by. I've racked up way too many $15 parking violations in the past year.

Only $15? Last parking ticket I got was for $85

Additional bonus points for predicting when a spot or one of a group of spots is likely to become empty.

Here is a cool startup that I talked to recently. http://www.spotscout.com/. They are making parking spot finding and trading possible.

One problem could be that in any city where you'd need this, the parking spots are probably snapped up so quick that knowing there's an empty spot 4 blocks away isn't going to help you.

StreetView Live: Like street view but based on webcams, always up to date and live action.

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