Smart parking or smart parking is a term used and repeated in many contexts, making its definition relatively vague. In general, intelligent parking or smart parking concerns all the concepts, processes, organizations, and technologies aimed at making the parking system more efficient.

One should differentiate:

• Systems approach smart parking via comprehensive approaches that improve the entire parking system.
• More specifique cases improperly called intelligent parking or smart parking: for which it is a question of optimizing a particular component of the parking system: the vehicle, a specific parking lot, parking control, data communication between two players, payment.

Smart parking should thus not be msitaken for:

• 'Park Assist' systems

  The parking assistance functions developed by major car manufacturers, such as Nissan for example. The example of Park Assist de la Nissan Qashqai is one of the most well known. Thesystème IPA ou S-IPA for simple parking support system, is another example developed by Toyota.

• Underground car park equipped with machines and LAPIs

  Technologies making it possible to make underground car parks more automated, with for example automatic barrier systems, reading license plates of the type LAPI.

• Parking payment via mobile apps

  Mobile apps dedicated toonstreet parking payment, as PayByPhone is for instance

• Automated parking rules enforcement

  Cars equipped with cameras to automatically control parking times and send information to the authorities or operators in charge of the control. This is the case with actors like Streeteo, owned by Indigo for instance, or Moovia.

• Minute stops systems

  Which make it possible to educate citizens on the duration of parking and the need to increase vehicle turnover.