A Melbourne startup is trying to reduce congestion by helping people find street parking in 5 minutes or less (Melbourne only)
Their beta - launching soon, and are looking for early adopters for the free app. Could be amazingly useful when you're stuck circling around for parking in the Melbourne CBD - and it's free!
You can sign up for the beta launch at www.whooshka.me
hey, whooshka uses proprietary algorithms that detect parking and unparking behaviour. since its a free app to help reduce congestion the app is designed to nòt need interaction. 1 tap, 1 screen was the development challenge, and that will tell you whether or not users have left spaces recently in your vicinity.
the reason no one is trying to do this is because its not easily monetisable - but the point is to help people find parking asap rather than make $$. that focus will eventually reduce congestion as betweem 30 and 75% of traffic is just looking for parking.
get in touch on www.whooshka.me if you want to know more!
proprietary algorithms that detect parking and unparking behaviour
wtf
My assumption … it tries to guess whether or not a car is parked in a space based on tracking the GPS (or similar) signal in the users' mobile phones.
They need everyone to install the app, so it can report back.
If only one person in the CBD has the app, you won't know about a spot until they leave.
That's what I think as well. So basically if a Whooshka user A leaves, it would mark the space as available to Whooshka user B. However, if a non-Whooshka user was already waiting for the spot and parks in it immediately, then by the time Whooshka user B gets there, it's going to be already taken even though it's showing available.
I can't see this working either.
So it can only tell if someone who has the app leaves a park? How many people in Melbourne have the app to make it worthwhile?
I was imagining something like the council exposing an API for the same sensors as the parking meters use - that would have been impressive.
Or the government finally gave access to its highly classified high altitude surveillance drones.
advertising, like nearly every other free app
Half the time the problem with parking is not necessarily the availability but rather that others get there first. Melb is a maze of one-way streets etc, I'll still need to be doing loops in the hope of getting lucky with someone leaving. An app telling me there is a space 100m up the road is useless if it is no right turn or I get stuck at lights and someone with or without the app nabs it.
How does the app solve these problems? Does turn all traffic lights red for everyone except me?
Hello everyone,
Some of you have correctly assessed that Whooshka works by detecting user departures, and makes that data available to other users (if they need parking). Several issues arise from this approach:
(i) the peer-to-peer nature of the algorithms means that the app works better the more users are in a given vicinity
(ii) it cannot reserve spaces for you - privately reserving public street parking is illegal (as it should be)
(iii) if another user or non-user gets to the space before you, they can take it - this is exactly as happens without the app, where someone closer to the spot you can see gets there before you do.
(iv) However, having a visual representation of parks that have freed up in the previous 5 minutes means that you get a greater sense of where else you can park. Currently we rely on line of sight to determine where to park, and get stuck in circulating flows of traffic that contribute to congestion
(v) Whooshka is designed to integrate council and other public data anywhere in the world, should governments make them available in real-time. However, it is not dependent on that data (because who knows when that will happen, or when it will be arbitrarily withdrawn!) - the phone is used to do much of that work, and hence the system is dependent on users.
(vi) much of the impact of traffic congestion from parking has been studied - see for example; http://shoup.bol.ucla.edu/CruisingForParkingAccess.pdf and https://qz.com/296831/eliminating-the-torment-of-city-parkin…
Also, Whooshka is yet to launch, and when we do launch, it's day 0. This is not an overnight solution, but a long term effort to reduce and improve congestion.
MOST IMPORTANTLY - Whooshka has no advertising and will not run ads. Whooshka was designed to not demand attention or time or input from the user. It works even without interaction, so ads make little sense. There is no monetisation to the company that has developed it. It is part of a social experiment to determine whether people are genuinely interested in solving parking and congestion with free tools (or not).
Cheers!
Whooshka Team
You need users in order for the app to work, and you need the app to work properly to attract users.
Catch 22! It’s going to be a challenge.
this is very true! its exactly like the telephone or any other networks effects business like ebay or facebook or dating sites. a huge challenge. but by making whooshka as user friendly as possible (1 tap, 1 screen, with all complexity hidden away) we hope that users will be patient while we build up the user base. it wont need interaction for it to detect users parking and unparking, so that's a start. also city councils are encouraging and supportive as they recognise the tech solves a real problem. finally, whooshka has chosen a method and model that doesn't monetise easily - because that happens to be the best solution for the driver. we chose to focus on the best solution rather than the best business model, as in this case the two are not the same. :)
thanks for your support!
hi Melbourne! Whooshka parking has launched and is available for free. try it in melbourne cbd and surrounds…you will love it :)
How does it work?