The Spot Market for Transportation (and Parking!)

When referring to a "spot market", we usually have in mind financial instruments and commodities. The DAV Network enables a "spot market" for transportation.

In my previous post (here), I demonstrated the advantages of having a decentralized economy for autonomous transportation. The primary benefit of decentralization is to service shared vehicles (see various models here) at the closest facility and enable seamless transition between users, thus maximizing network effects to minimize miles with empty vehicles.

In this post I would like to propose a bidding system to create a parking marketplace for connected cars - essentially creating a dynamic pricing ecosystem similar to other transportation models such as congestion charges or priority fast lanes in highways. DAV is creating the Internet of Transportation by building the infrastructure required to enable vehicles to discover, communicate, and transact with each other using DAV tokens (based on the blockchain). This infrastructure should be used not only to transact between vehicles, but also between vehicles and parking space owners and managers.

Imagine a future of autonomous vehicles all looking for a place to park following the morning peak hour. As explained in a previous post (here), these autonomous vehicles will likely be electric. Whether they are privately owned or operated by fleets, they will need to be charged, and therefore parked, since the technology of wireless charging from road infrastructure - a road network with dynamic charging capabilities - is still far away (see Qualcomm's attempts here). Remaining in or close to the central business districts is important for both the privately owned autonomous car (unless the owner lives very close by to his workplace) and the fleet owners, who want to maximize the number of passengers per mile driven. Now these driverless vehicles will need to find a suitable parking space which can also provide them other required services - from charging to cleaning and maintenance. An effective way to maximize efficiencies in the ecosystem will be to provide a bidding system for all autonomous cars to pay for these services using a decentralized network - which is where the DAV Network come in...

The DAV Network enables an "eBay for transportation services" or more particularly an "eBay for parking services" - a decentralized platform to bid (and ask for) DAV tokens for parking, charging, and other related services. The platform will automatically match between supply and demand for all parking related services in the autonomous era. This could be referred to as "The Spot Market for Parking" - with a bid/ask system as efficient as financial markets.

While autonomous vehicles become more prevalent, parking operators will likely suffer from declining revenues. This is because autonomous vehicles do not really need to park - they just need to stand! They can stand in driveways, in front of fire hydrants, and block each other (double and triple parking). Once the charging & maintenance get taken care of, they are free to move anywhere and at any time. So besides blocking each other and fitting in many more cars per square meter, the parking operator could also send them to the least favorable spots - the ones farthest away from the exits. Therefore, the price to park AV's will be cheaper than human driven vehicles and supplemental services such as charging and maintenance will gradually become a more substantial share of parking operators' revenues. AV's will be able to wait for their owners farther away where parking is cheaper - and to be serviced there.

As the competition for these services will develop, the need for an autonomous bidding system will become apparent. The benefits are obvious for AV's, who need to drive themselves to the selected parking and service points, but are also relevant for human driven vehicles - who should likewise be allowed to bid for parking (and if necessary charging) services. After AV's are charged and serviced, they could just stand where they block things (other cars, driveways, etc...) or wait in someone's private parking spot - moving autonomously when requested. With the DAV Network and an automatic bidding system, autonomous vehicles could bid on the number of DAV tokens they are willing to transfer to the owner of the private driveway or parking space which they are blocking. The proposed bidding system maximizes potential untapped revenues for parking owners while simultaneously enabling continuous and almost endless parking options for the autonomous vehicle - and at cheaper rates than human driven vehicles.

For more information about DAV, see the following channels:

Website: https://dav.network/

Telegram: https://t.me/DAVNetwork

Twitter: https://twitter.com/davnetwork

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DAVNetworkTeam

Author: linkedin.com/in/itamar-meimon-25712a1