- Parkopedia to deliver premium parking services in China as part of CenNavi’s in-car solutions
- Connected car service provider, Parkopedia, helps millions of drivers each year find and pay for parking in China
- CenNavi, part of NavInfo Group, is a leading provider of traffic information services across more than 360 cities in China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan
- BMW drivers will be the first to benefit from the new partnership with wider automaker announcements to be made shortly
17 September 2021 - Shanghai, China
Research carried out by Parkopedia earlier this year found that almost 90% of drivers in China struggle to find parking, with drivers blaming a lack of information as the main cause. The total number of passenger cars in the country has now exceeded 281 million with just 80 million public parking spaces available,✴ making finding a parking space a vital part of the driver user experience in China, and a key issue for automakers to resolve.
To help solve this issue, leading connected car services provider Parkopedia has partnered with location data provider CenNavi, a subsidiary of mapping giant NavInfo, to provide static and dynamic off-street parking data, payments, as well as nearby parking recommendation services, to automakers in China. Parkopedia’s services will act to complement CenNavi’s existing suite of products, such as real-time traffic information, lane-level traffic forecast services, event information services, City plate number limit warnings and EV charging dynamic services.
Parkopedia’s patented parking space availability recommendations will be a welcome addition to CenNavi’s in-car solution, allowing the vehicle to intuitively send out recommendations to the driver for nearby parking spaces seamlessly via the vehicle head-unit, as they approach their destination.
CenNavi’s parent company, NavInfo, is the HD mapping and location services provider to BMW China. Parkopedia, having already worked with BMW China since 2018, will continue to support drivers who are currently using the automaker’s iDrive 7.0 infotainment operating system, as part of the new partnership. This will enable drivers to continue to utilise parking services such as detailed parking information (including prices, opening hours and precise location data) and dynamic space availability, in all major cities in China. BMW China will also provide technical feedback to Parkopedia from their vehicles, allowing the parking data provider to continually improve the accuracy of its dynamic parking data predictions for their drivers.
Commenting on the announcement, Hans Puvogel, COO at Parkopedia, said: “We are delighted to partner with NavInfo and CenNavi. Our combined market-leading parking and traffic management solutions will ensure drivers in China are able to complete total journeys with minimal interruptions, as well as allowing us to deliver the latest complete traffic and parking solutions available to automakers and drivers in China.”
Xinxin Jiang, GM of CenNavi Vehicle Product BU, added: “Parking is a frequently searched feature in vehicle navigation. We are very happy to cooperate with the market leader Parkopedia in the parking industry, to provide detailed and accurate, static and dynamic data to connected cars, helping to make the journey easier for every driver.”
