Audi
Audi is a company that loves to make its cars do the work for you. Its self-driving car may not be on the market yet, but its latest addition to its Audi Connect service solves a greater headache than having to actually steer: Finding parking.
Rather than blindly meandering through the streets looking for a garage, only to find one that's overflowing with cars, Audi drivers can now flip through a list of nearby garages in the car's navigational system. The service launched yesterday for all cars already equipped with Audi Connect.
You can then sort options by price, and location, see the entrance on Google Street View, and when possible, see how many spaces are available. The database lists more than 18,000 garages and parking lots in North America--and 42,000 in Europe--through INRIX, a company that provides real-time traffic data. Unfortunately, it won't park it for you.
CNET reports that INRIX is working on letting drivers rate parking options and pay for their spots electronically--because rolling down the window to pay can be so tiring.
[CNET]
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