An ITS-Park Deployment Model – A GM/Toyota Scenario

 

It’s the summer of 2017. GM and Toyota launch a joint world ITS-Park introduction program. They launch sales of smartcars with an ITS-Park option in ten cities around the world – in the U.S., Japan, Europe and China. The two companies have a recent historical linkage, beginning in 1984, of cooperation in a joint manufacturing program called NUMMI in Fremont, California. They have now chosen to renew that cooperation as the fastest way to launch ITS-Park option sales around the world.

Lexus/Toyota and Opel/GM dealers are selling Lexus, Camry, Cadillac, Opel and Buick smartcar models equipped with ITS-Park. Each dealer has set aside a special section of his surface parking lot as an ITS-Park area. Potential customers are able to come to the dealers and drive one of those smartcar models to the ITS-Park section; exit the car;  watch the car drive unattended into the parking area; park in an empty space; remain there for two minutes or so; back out and return to the originating point; and go through the whole routine over again. Needless to say, this running demonstration program has become a big attraction, not only for prospective car buyers, but for the general population throughout each city.

But what good is that ITS-Park option if there’s no place to use it? Participating dealers have simultaneously launched a large number of application programs across each city. Restaurants, shopping centers and sports stadiums have been subsidized to set aside their own ITS-Park areas. Each area is re-striped to narrower space sizes; fenced off for exclusive ITS-Park use; and tied into remote reservation services. As part of the promotion effort, purchasers of the ITS-Park option are given free restaurant dinners, reduced cost and/or free game tickets to sporting events and entered in lucrative shopping drawings at the involved shopping malls. Again, restaurant patrons, shopping center visitors, and  sports game attendees, along with the general public, stand mesmerized for long periods, as they watch drivers arrive, get out of their smartcar and see the car park itself.

In addition, the two companies have contracted with private parking garage operators to have an ITS-Park facility constructed in a high visibility area in each participating city. Patrons who purchase a car with the ITS-Park option are given free parking for the next year at that garage. The promotional parking lots and garages all operate using an ITS-Park standard for smartcars, approved by ITS America two years previous.

The GM/Toyota introduction program is a resounding success, garnering extensive world press and Internet coverage, including many personal interviews with satisfied car owners. The companies sell a combined total of over 50,000 ITS-Park equipped smartcars besides experiencing increases in sales of other non-equipped cars. The launch effort is reported on as one of the fastest worldwide introductions of a new car option ever. The program is planned to continue for another four years, opening in ten more cities each year. In addition, other car manufacturers plan to begin introducing their cars with the ITS-Park option; and garage operators are lining up locations, and working with city planners, to build ITS-Park garages to deal with the rapidly growing demand. Projections indicate that well over one million ITS-Park equipped smartcars will be on the road, and using newly built ITS-Park facilities, at the end of the five year introduction period

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ITS-Park Deployment: Ford Smartcar Auto Show Scenario

 

The Detroit Auto Show, which is held every January at Cobo Hall in Detroit, attracts international press attention and over a million visitors each year. It is an ideal venue for the introduction of new automobiles and automotive ideas. It’s now January, 2016. Ford Motor Company has rented the Detroit Lions indoor football stadium for the past month. It has covered the artificial grass football turf with hundreds of sheets of plywood, creating a driving surface. Driving aisles and a series of side-by-side angled parking spaces are painted on the plywood, simulating a surface parking lot. Some twenty prototype smartcars and pickups are in operation on the painted surface during the days of the show. Ford has set aside one day for a charity show viewing day; another for the international press corps. During the other days, the facility is open to the general public at no charge. The public can either drive there directly and park in the Lions parking lot; or be picked up by Ford shuttles at Cobo Hall where the car show is underway. Visitors are loaded into the back seats of smartcars and driven inside, where the driver gets out, simulating a driver entering a ITS-Park garage. The passengers are treated to an internal display showing that the parking garage has recognized the vehicle and displays the expected parking charge, and expected empty parking space, like this is a real parking garage. The smartcar then proceeds automatically into the stadium, circulates down a few aisles till it arrives at the intended parking space; parks; stops; backs out; and returns to the start. Meanwhile the passengers are watching the smartcar steer itself and operate accelerator and brake pedals. All this intended to make passengers more comfortable with the idea of ITS technology taking over the driving task. Several smartpickups  have gowned models enthroned in the pickup beds, waving to the audience as the vehicles move around, parking and un-parking – an excellent way to demonstrate the safety of smartcar operations. The demonstration program is a huge success with videos on television programs, and the Internet, shown around the world.

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Re: About this blog

Please note that I have revised the content of this blog. I apologize for my previous change to also include posts regarding the subject of Automated Highway Systems (AHS) in the form of the PAC-ITS concept. I found that mix of subjects to be too confusing and I will, instead, be initiating a new blog on that subject in the next several weeks.

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ITS-Park Viewers Survey

 

I have been planning a series of posts for the first half of this year, covering:

1. Self-Park and ITS-Park comparisons across different categories
2. ITS-Park Deployment – Implications and Issues across various classes of stakeholders:
   • Users
   • Developers
   • Local government
   • Transit
   • Car Manufacturers
   • Planners
   • And others
3. Deployment scenarios
4. ITS-Park R&D and Demonstration organization options
5. Business development issues
6. Urban planning options and concepts

 

Before proceeding with the above posts, I feel compelled to understand whether I’m reaching the types of viewers, and gaining the type of discussion, that I feel appropriate. I’ve also been exploring other options for moving ahead with the concept of ITS-Park. I urge you to respond to the survey below, as the number and type of answers I receive will dictate my future direction for this blog. Please answer the following questions.

1. What country do you live in?
2. What is your background:

a)      Interested citizen

b)      Technology development

c)      Urban planning

d)      Government

e)      Architecture

f)        Land use development

g)      Environmental

h)      Other – please specify

3. How often do you view my blog?

a)      At least once a week

b)      More than once a week

c)      Several times per month

d)      Just occasionally

4. Why do you view my blog?

a)      Personal curiosity

b)      Involvement in a directly related field

c)      Potential future interest by the company I work for

d)      Current interest of my company in this area

e)      Other – please specify

5. What do you see as the next step in potential ITS-Park development?

a)      A government sponsored organization?

b)      Government R&D grants?

c)      Private industry R&D work?

d)      New venture developments?

e)      Entry by a competitor company or country?

f)        A government or private industry competition?

g)      Other? Please specify