Car drivers around the world will soon have an easier time finding parking thanks to a new partnership between DENSO and Berlin-based deep tech startup Bliq.

Bliq leverages real-time data streams from millions of connected vehicles and Computer Vision on the Edge to build the world’s most advanced street-level sensor network. Bliq’s Park service provides parking assistance for both, street parking and managed parking facilities in more than 500 cities to date. Powered by vehicle telematics and mobile app data, Bliq uses a simple color code to indicate likely availability of parking on any given street or parking facility.

By combining DENSO’s sensor systems and Bliq’s cloud services for real-time parking, connected cars are now able to detect open parking spaces using built-in sensors and share this information with other drivers in the area, helping them find parking faster, avoid illegal parking and reduce air pollution caused by cruising on the last mile. Based on sensing technlologies, the detection of open parking spots is fully automated and happens while driving by.

Bliq adds its high-definition parking map data using its Bliq Park cloud service to enrich real-time parking space detections with high-resolution parking geometries, as well as underlying prices, opening hours and parking restrictions to validate where parking is feasible and legally possible.

Valid parking space detections are then broadcasted in real-time via Bliq’s cloud service to drivers searching for parking nearby. Bliq’s parking map can be used by app developers and mobility stakeholders wanting to integrate a smoother parking experience into their product or service.

“With Bliq, we found a strong partner that combines deep map making and AI expertise with a global parking data footprint. Our respective strengths together form perfect synergies that will deliver real-time parking assistance to car drivers”, said Dr. Yasutoshi Horii, Senior Manager AD/ADAS at DENSO.

“Our collaboration with DENSO is a great example of in-vehicle sensor systems contributing to our mission of solving parking in the constantly changing city environment with better and more accurate information. We’re proud to work together with one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s technologically possible”, said Johannes Riedel, COO at Bliq.

Bliq feeds parking space detections back to its machine learning models in order to predict available parking in advance before the car drivers arrive at the destination. Additionally, other objects of interest, such as traffic signs or lane markers, are analyzed in-vehicle and sent to the Bliq platform to automatically detect changes of the map and to perform real-time updates.

DENSO’s system provides extensive amounts of data that enables Bliq to provide higher resolution maps with higher quality parking spot detections in real time. The accurate data collected also feeds into Bliq’s other map layers, to constantly update the parking map and to increase the accuracy of parking assistance services offered to drivers all over the world.

Author: Johannes Riedel

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/denso-bliq-team-up-shape-future-city-parking-johannes-riedel/?trackingId=dbVHXuJxz5VrlaF4c8uMcQ%3D%3D