Photo credit: Tejvan Pettinger
I was watching the news the other night while trying to get my little girl to sleep. I saw a car parking feature come on and fought to keep my eyes open.
This happens to me all the time. She will sit in her pram, wide eyed and babbling while watching those crazy Backyardigans dance away on screen. Meanwhile, I’ll be flat out on the bed trying desperately to keep my eyes open. Usually my wife will walk in half an hour later and I’ll be snoring while the little one is still focused on Tasha and Austin and the rest (oh yes, I know their names too).
So, I decided to turn the tables and put something on the telly which would interest me more than her. I slapped on a news channel and suddenly felt that familiar heavy eye lidded sensation while she discovered a new interest in global events.
Maybe It Was Just Another Flying Car
Just as I was nodding off a report started about parking software. It seemed to be someone using a smartphone app to find parking spaces but try as I might I couldn’t keep my attention on it. As I woke up half an hour later I tried to find out what the story as about but no one I know had seen it. In this part of the world stories about remote parking sensors are like those old stories we used to enjoy in the UK about flying cars and pills that would make you live till 200 years old.
I had assumed that the story was from the US, although this hunch was based purely on the fact that I saw someone in the background eating a massive burger. Maybe the trend in Westminster is for bigger fast food, as this is where the only story I could find online which looked similar comes from.
It seems Westminster City Council are going to launch technology which will let you use your smart phone (see, I wasn’t dreaming) to find where you could find a free parking space. It sounds groovy and it is a three month trial so why not give it a try? Just don’t go mad with those giant burgers.