Digitising the kerbside

Describing its technology as 'air traffic control’ for smart cities, Dan Hubert, CEO of AppyWay, aims to manage the kerb and unlock intelligent mobility

Kerbside technology specialist AppyParking has launched a new parent brand, AppyWay, as the business prepares to expand its international activities. Having recently completed a successful Series A funding round, the AppyWay brand has been launched to help better articulate the company’s vision of smart and connected cities where intelligent mobility can flourish.

Dan Hubert, founder and chief executive, said: 'This is another huge milestone for our business and it’s truly a joy to be able to bring to life ‘the why’ behind ‘the what’ our fantastic team do. It all starts with a vision for more livable cities, and our obsession with the kerb. 

'We may be a bit biased, but we genuinely believe kerbs have the power to unlock a better urban life for us all – socially, commercially and physically. And that right now is the right time to unlock that kerb power.'

Dan Hubert, AppyWay, will be speaking at Smarter Tomorrow

Creating a digital twin of the city will enable councils to better manage their valuable kerbside assets and create more liveable streets.

Councils are faced with ever increasing demands for access to their kerbside for parking, loading, deliveries and setting down passengers. Managing these demands effectively is essential for the health of the city, to ease congestion and improve air quality. Key to this is knowing what controls are in place and where.

AppyParking is mapping the kerbside to create a digital twin of the city, providing councils with accurate, high definition and up to date data. We scan the streets using LiDAR technology and machine learning turns the scanned lines, signs and assets into a digital map of the city. This data is hosted on a platform for councils to manage, update and create new restrictions.

Services are then provided to customers to make finding a space easier, including navigation, frictionless payments and virtual permitting. It also provides councils with the tools to control demand with vehicle fuel type pricing for parking or managing Clean Air Zones. The added value of this data is in exposing it to fleet operators, rideshare and car companies to enable, control and monetise access to the kerbside.

Digitising the kerbside and simplifying access with technology allows councils to maximise and control the use of their valuable assets. It also enables the flexibility to create alternative uses.

Digitising the kerb for an intelligent future

With HD Kerbside data, mobility developers can deliver game-changing last mile parking experiences for motorists. We're empowering authorities and citizens with our data, ultimately helping create more accessible, more liveable cities.

The problem: Kerbside restrictions, otherwise known as Traffic Regulation Orders, are currently represented as either Text Based or Mapped Based orders. Local Authorities use these as legal instruments to implement most traffic controls on their roads.

Unfortunately TROs are currently designed, managed and publicised using outmoded technology, resulting in poor end-to-end data capabilities that are essential for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) to interact freely with the kerb.

Government bodies are putting increasing pressure on local authorities to expose good parking data in the effort the help reduce congestion and pollution. The Department of Transport have also highlighted the need for connected cars and autonomous vehicles to be connected to a digital infrastructure layer over the existing road network.

The solution: ‘Signs to Lines’ mapping is the latest patent pending technology that creates the world’s most accurate HD kerbside maps of all the paint on the street related to traffic and parking management.

The ‘Signs to Lines’ mapping technology uses a combination of state of the art vehicle mounted LiDAR scanners, photography and machine learning. The revolutionary rapid data capture and processing techniques is faster, cheaper and more accurate than existing mapping methods and is key to delivering better data to local authorities.

The machine learning process combines every restriction, rule type, tariff and exemption and creates the world’s first standardised HD Kerbside maps accurate to 3 cm.

The benefits

Standardised HD Kerbside Restriction Maps open up huge opportunities within the smart city and intelligent mobility sector:

• Local Authorities can help reduce congestion and pollution by providing the best kerbside data to drivers and fleets
• Utilities companies can use the HD maps to help reduce parking fines and increase productivity
• Civil Enforcement Officers and Penalty Charge Appeals can use HD maps for reference
• Car-sharing companies are gaining popularity. Unfortunately the complex parking landscape means that vehicles are not correctly left in the appropriate place and parking fines are issued to customers, making for a bad consumer experience. HD Kerbside data exposed to these customers would give peace of mind and encourage wider adoption
• Connected Vehicles and Autonomous Vehicles need to be connected to the physical and digital infrastructure in order to interact freely with the kerbside