Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet that spun out of Google in 2015, could make it easier to drive and park in cities by creating hybrid public and private transportation options that rely on
ride-share services such as Uber -- or perhaps Google's autonomous cars.
The Guardian obtained documents that show how Sidewalk's app, Flow, would use
camera-equipped vehicles,
like Google’s Street View cars, to count all the public parking spaces in a city and read roadside parking signs. It would then combine data from drivers using Google
Maps
with live information from city parking meters to estimate the available spaces. Drivers would be directed to available spaces. Read the whole story at The Guardian »