XM Project Is Aimed at Creating a National Parking Info Service

XM and two other companies are working on a system to help drivers find parking spaces.
The companies intend to test the XM ParkingLink concept later this year in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington. The service builds on XM NavTraffic service, which has expanded to provide traffic information in 44 markets and is offered on certain cars.
The firms involved are Standard Parking Corp. and Quixote Transportation Technologies.
Using a vehicle’s navigation system, the system shows drivers space availability at Standard Parking facilities using color-keyed icons to indicate the percentage of available spots.
Standard operates 1,900 parking facilities in 300 cities. Quixote installs sensors embedded in roads and parking facilities to determine space availability.
The concept was demonstrated at the Intelligent Transportation Society World Congress in San Francisco in November.