Leading parking service providers, Parkopedia provides a suite of parking services, enabling drivers to find the closest parking to their destination, tells them how much it will cost and whether the space is available
Parkopedia services has been widely used by millions of drivers and organizations such as Apple, Audi, BMW, Coyote, Ford, Garmin, etc.
During a casual conversation with Aishwarya, Adam Calland, Marketing Director, Parkopedia discussed about their payment platform and in-car connected services.
Providing one of its kind in-car services, tell us about Parkopedia’s key products and what makes their services superior from its competitors?
Parkopedia offers a broad range of in-vehicle connected services, predominantly to the automotive industry but also across the mapping and navigation sector. The company has been the market leader for in-car digital parking services for over a decade but has more recently expanded upon this with complementary vehicle-centric services such as Park and Charge for Electric Vehicles, an integrated Payment Platform for in-vehicle payments and indoor maps to enable Automated Valet Parking and indoor navigation features.
What sets our services apart from the competition is our meticulous attention to detail around our data, combined with our mission to delight drivers with innovative services that complement the driving experience and make journeys simpler and more efficient, which runs through everything we do at the company. We now have global coverage of more than 20,000 cities across 90 countries and how Parkopedia combines this data with in-car payments, featuring Single Sign-On capabilities across all domains, and the highest levels of customer security with full PCI compliance, is unique in the industry. Parkopedia’s services are currently used in 60% of all new vehicles in Europe and 25% worldwide.
Regarding the payment solutions offered, kindly brief our readers about the payment model of Parkopedia and is it customizable to suit the needs of different OEMs?
Parkopedia offers a range of flexible in-car payment services to automakers. Our Payment Platform API enables automakers to integrate connected car services in the optimal way for their infotainment systems and desired overall connected experience. This enables automakers to provide user-friendly experiences to drivers including convenient features such as Single Sign-On, which provides single secure access across all payment services without additional approvals being required via apps or phones. Additionally, Parkopedia’s Payment Platform makes in-car commerce features such as parking, charging, fuelling and toll payments transactable, so drivers can improve efficiency by seamlessly paying for driving-related services from their car as part of a premium connected experience, while automakers can benefit from potential additional revenue streams.
Parkopedia offers automakers wallet services, with companies able to customize the service provided to suit their needs. This can vary from automakers managing payments themselves through their own payment vaults, to Parkopedia providing complete payment orchestration for added convenience and efficiency.
Regarding its payment model, Parkopedia provides several options for automakers, depending upon the level of service and scale of operation needed. Parkopedia mainly provides services on a licence-per-vehicle basis, as this means that drivers can benefit from the most comprehensive service possible without restrictions on specific locations that could be influenced by partnerships or promotions. However, Parkopedia can also offer revenue-sharing formats, specifically for payment-enabled locations, which gives automakers significant flexibility on what they provide their drivers and can complement their overall connected services strategy.
Addressing the fragmented market of charging operators, what are the key services Parkopedia’s cloud-based platform offer to its clients?
With Parkopedia’s ‘Park and Charge’ service for the EV industry, the company has direct integrations with Charge Point Operators (CPOs) and eMobility Service Providers (eMSPs), allowing for a consolidated view of public chargers for automakers and their drivers in major regions globally. Parkopedia offers a simple integration to clients allowing for static (location, operating hours, pricing and more) and dynamic (availability) charge point data to be retrieved, allowing for rapid integration and feature rollout for their drivers. Parkopedia invests heavily in manual and automated validation processes across our dataset to ensure high accuracy of data attributes allowing drivers to easily locate and utilise charge points. Parkopedia also provides visibility of a wide range of charge point types (DC and AC) to allow for the desired driver experiences to be delivered. Additionally, Parkopedia enriches the data to include an ever-growing range of on-site photos, ratings and reviews for EV charging locations to give reassurance and reduce EV driver anxiety, combined with on-site transaction handling for the driver, providing the simplest method of activating and paying for charge sessions from the vehicle, irrespective of the CPO at that location.
In its most recent collaboration with Plugsurfing, how does the integration of Parkopedia services with Drive API benefit their clients?
This collaboration allows for a seamless EV charging customer journey without the need for the user to sign up to multiple eMSP solutions ahead of using a charge point. The integration allows for charging activations and payments to take place from within the vehicle’s infotainment system, eliminating the need for multiple RFID cards, mobile apps and having to exit the vehicle other than to plug in the vehicle. This drastically simplifies the charging experience for users by streamlining the charging process and alleviates many of the existing concerns around charging anxiety on longer journeys or for drivers who do not have the ability to charge at home.
Tell us about your plans for expansion, specifically in the APAC region.
With our EV service now established in Europe and North America, our plan in the near future is to extend this further across the APAC region. Our initial focus is to provide static EV data to drivers in SE Asia, Taiwan, Korea and Japan that will sync with our successful parking services that are already present, delivering the first stage of the combined parking and charging experience desired by the drivers in the region that are now transitioning to electric vehicles. Following this, we plan to expand both the available services and areas of coverage across APAC and will cover the details in scheduled announcements later in the year.