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High Tech Parking Meters Alert Police via Text Message

by Dan Reilly on January 11, 2009 at 01:01 PM

Thanks to the French, parking meters can now snitch on drivers who stay longer than they're allowed by sending text messages to the cops. Not cool.

The smart meters, developed by engineering firm Technolia, detect when a car is parked in a space through the use of a magnetic field. In the 60 towns employing these new meters in France, the meters allow each driver 20 minutes of parking near shopping areas in the hopes of creating quick turnover. Once that expires, the meter waits 15 minutes before texting the police, who apparently have an 80-percent chance of finding an illegally parked car between 12 and 18 minutes after the driver is supposed to be gone. Naturally, the French people are partially to blame, since only 20-percent of them ever pay their parking tickets, which cost around $15 American.

On the bright side, the system does make exceptions for disabled drivers through the use of a magnetic badge, and fines those who park illegally in the designated spaces. The folks at Technolia hope the technology will improve to the point where drivers have special ID tags so they can be alerted five minutes before their time expires and allowed to buy extra time remotely, all via text message.

Naturally, the system would be pretty foolproof then, but, for now, can't the meters be duped by simply backing out and pulling in again before the cops arrive? [From: The Times Online]

Tags: crime fighting, CrimeFighting, parking meter, ParkingMeter, police, text, text messaging, texting, textmessaging

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