By Matt Feagins

What lies ahead in the intersection of mobile phones and their potential for good in the world of parking? A lot of people in parking are working on allowing the customer to use cell phones to facilitate payment. This is all well and good, but I am also interested in what the big tech companies are doing for parking.

We also already have systems that can help find where you parked—but those systems are only good outdoors. Following your progress and noting where you park in a garage is the next step in the evolution of these systems. Thankfully, companies like Apple are working on these types of systems. When you get back, the phone can tell you not only where you parked and even potentially let you in your car (while setting your seats, preferred temperature, etc. for you without you having to push a button or capacitive screen, to be more accurate). Of course, these patents are rather old now, so they may be having technical issues getting the former to work and probably having integration issues with the latter. Hopefully we will soon see some of these ideas come to fruition.

Matt Feagins is director of design/structures with WALTER P MOORE.