There is no data available on the number of mall garages outfitted with sensors to help keep track of vacant spots, but analysts say the rate of adoption for mall infrastructure and the number of parking apps is doubling or tripling year over year.
Taubman Centers, which owns and manages 22 malls in the United States, installed sensors in the garages in two of its centers to show shoppers on which floors they could find open parking spots. Installation costs $50,000 to $100,000 per location.
But parking is only half the battle. When a customer is ready to leave, there is the matter of finding the car. Simon Property Group, the country’s largest mall owner and operator with more than 300 properties, said that use of its free app, which includes a feature that helps shoppers locate their parked car, had increased eightfold in the last two years.
FastCompany on the other hand talks about the rise of robo-parking
"Its automated parking-garage system (no searching, no attendants!) is already in use at three smaller New York locations, parking more than 350,000 cars with zero errors; it plans to open a 700-space car lot under a public park in Brooklyn, in 2016, which will house 250,000 cars a year. And because the cars idle less, lots of gas is saved."
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