Impressive car parking technology at Skycity

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Mark

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#119501 3-Jun-2013 17:43

I was in Sky City yesterday and I was quite impressed with their car parking system, every space is covered by a camera, if the computer sees the space is empty a green light is lit .. makes it a doodle finding a space now. Then because they are cameras they have number plate reading going on so you can find your car by typing the number plate into the computer screen.

I'm wondering if the cameras are recording a few frames a second all the time as well for catching car thieves .. or to see if you left the kids in there :-)

The nerd in me liked it ... now over to the conspiracy theorists to point out what they are REALLY doing ;-)

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#830149 3-Jun-2013 18:15

Great for the drunk gambler who just lost all of their money to help find their children .

JamesL

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#830151 3-Jun-2013 18:22

Other car parks have a sensor stuck on the concrete which also alerts to the space being free, so it is being done elsewhere ;)

There isn't any of this in Wellington but when in Auckland found it quite useful as you don't have to f around looking for an empty spot

LennonNZ

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#830164 3-Jun-2013 18:46

It only works when the sensors/system is working correctly. I've been a number of times in the Victoria Street West carpark which has the Green/Red light system and its been broken with lots of green lights and cars in them.

CYaBro

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#830186 3-Jun-2013 19:20

Some great technology we have in Whangarei for parking too.
http://www.mpark.co.nz
Allows you to pay for parking via your smartphone and get reminders when you time is almost up so you can top up if required without having to go back to the car and feed the machine.

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blackjack17

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#830187 3-Jun-2013 19:23

In the Philippines have seen a much simpler system that simply detects if a car is beneath and shows red or green, helpful for looking for a park (esp so you don't get your hopes up and then find a vitz of motorcycle parked there)

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DjShadow

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#830188 3-Jun-2013 19:23

Te Awa mall at The Base in Hamilton has this also, makes it much easier just looking for green lights instead of gaps.
There are sensor pods in each parking space looking for something above it to indicate there is a car there.

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sbiddle

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#830194 3-Jun-2013 19:36

It's really common at a lot of shopping malls overseas which can also direct drivers to free parks.

richms

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#830217 3-Jun-2013 20:30

Whatever carpark I was using in town had the red-greens, and numbers, both were hopelessly wrong, there was a number of free parks showing on the number, but all red lights down that row.

I wonder if they have the ANR doing anything else smart. Hook up with BP/Shell etc and dont let people that have done a driveoff out of the carpark ;)

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nakedmolerat

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#830261 3-Jun-2013 22:06

We have the same basic technology at Bayfair Mall in Tauranga

old3eyes

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#830427 4-Jun-2013 12:28

nakedmolerat: We have the same basic technology at Bayfair Mall in Tauranga

Yep I noticed that yesterday when I parked there. It worked very well..

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Old3eyes

nzkiwiman

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#830431 4-Jun-2013 12:35

While down in Dunedin we still drive round and round trying to find a car park and our sole mall still wants money so we can park in their building.

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wasabi2k

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#830436 4-Jun-2013 12:43

It was put in for a number of reasons, customer satisfaction and experience being one.

With regards to the kids in cars - all car parks are patrolled multiple times per day by security to check for anything or anyone dodgy (vandalism, theft, kids/animals left). As far as I am aware there have been no more instances of kids being left in cars since the incident that got in the paper, which was itself the first one for a long time.

The tracking of ins and outs helps a lot with planning and capacity management and also helps to highlight anything dodgy going on (people getting free parking tickets when they shouldn't).

It also allows a lot more control in allocating parks to staff or third parties - where you can check if their nominated cars are actually the ones parking in the car park, along with trends (people using our car park for all day parking for work).

Despite the conspiracies most surveillance and monitoring at SKYCITY is done for patron safety. The surveillance team takes their job very seriously which is why you don't see stabbings and robberies around that area. I would hazard a guess that SKYCITY and its properties are a ton safer than the surrounding streets.

As far as information gathering - probably. But unless you're a member of a loyalty programme your car parking habits really aren't that valuable or interesting.

Disclaimer: I work there, but was not involved in the parking system project.

PaulBrislen

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#830445 4-Jun-2013 12:50

I find it really useful but wish they hadn't used red and green for all those colour blind folk.

I despise the Downtown mall carpark in Auckland. There does seem to be a major disconnect between the number of available spaces listed on each floor and the number of actually available spaces. I've driven around that damned place looking at each sign telling me there are x places available and been forced to leave and park elsewhere because the sign tells lies.

Not the worst carpark in Auckland - that prize has to go to the one behind the Copthorne Hotel. Avoid at all costs.

ajobbins

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#830476 4-Jun-2013 13:15

sbiddle: It's really common at a lot of shopping malls overseas which can also direct drivers to free parks.

Yep most of the malls here have it. Shame it's never very accurate. Always seems to be broken.

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Klipspringer

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#830482 4-Jun-2013 13:29

PaulBrislen: I find it really useful but wish they hadn't used red and green for all those colour blind folk.

LOL

Same can be said about the traffic lights I suppose.
Those folk should not be on the road :-)

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