Munich, Germany - On October 1st Cleverciti hosted its very first online event about the smart parking pilot that is happening in Cologne-Nippes as we speak. The pilot is a collaboration between the city district itself, RheinEnergie AG and Cleverciti. The event that took place from 3-4PM was moderated by Dr. Günther Picker, Senior Vice President Strategic Partnerships & Business Development at Cleverciti. The panel of speakers consisted of:

• Thomas Hohenacker, Founder & CEO of Cleverciti

• Bernd Schößler, district mayor of Cologne-Nippes

• Christian Remacly, Project manager of Rheinenergie AG

After briefly introducing the speakers, Dr. Picker asked Mr. Hohenacker to open with explaining a little more about the project in Cologne-Nippes and what the mission of the project was (f.e. to reduce traffic and improve the arrival experience of people visiting the commercial center of Cologne-Nippes). 

Mr. Hohenacker shares a short presentation in which he explains the technology that was used in the pilot: a combination of Cleverciti’s own 80 overhead sensors with 27 Circ360™ LED displays, that can be mounted onto existing lampposts. Each sensor can monitor 10-70 parking spots at a time. Therefore the district knows at all time how many parking spots are taken and how many are free and their exact location. The sensors are also able to identify parking spots without marking (also called ‘floating parking spots’). The technology of the sensors is a combination of artificial intelligence with edge computing. 

After sharing a bit of background information about the Cleverciti Cockpit and the data that can be found  there, Mr. Hohenacker shows the actual Cockpit of Cologne-Nippes live. If you click on a specific parking spot, you can find specific information about that spot, f.e. the length of stay of the car that is currently parked there. The Cockpit also contains overall statistics, analyses and historical data.

Dr. Picker continues the conversation by asking a few questions about the project himself as well as asking questions from the audience to the panel members. The audience shows a high level of engagement and asks many detailed questions which are each answered by one of the panel members. Examples of questions were:

• What was the traffic situation like in Cologne-Nippes?

• How did the execution of the project go?

• Why did RheinEnergie choose Cleverciti?

• Have you seen a difference in Cologne-Nippes? 

• What were the first reactions of the residents?

• Is it also possible to get power from other systems, such as solar systems or batteries?

To hear the full answers of the panel members to these questions, watch the full recording that is added below. The questions and answers start at 14:45.

When the clock almost hits 4PM, Dr. Picker ends the conversation by thanking the attendees and the speakers for their attendance. He commends them on their detailed questions and states that if further questions pop up, they are welcome to contact Cleverciti at info@cleverciti.com or via Cleverciti’s homepage. Attendees of the event included, but not limited to: the cities of Hamburg, Wuppertal & Trier. 

Cleverciti would like to thank the speakers and all attendees for joining. And stay tuned for the next one! 

Missed it? Watch the full recording here (in German):

The PowerPoint slides that were shared by Mr. Hohenacker can be viewed below (in German):

Interested in learning more about smart city parking solutions? Click the button below to schedule a demo with a smart parking expert now.