ICT student Lucas invented 'Airbnb for parking spaces'
The plan originated in the Silicon Valley of Brabant: Eindhoven. Even at Fontys ICT, there is no parking space to be had on Tuesday afternoon. ‘We all know this problem, don't we?’ he laughs with recognition.
How it works
The idea is simple. With the app, you can rent out your parking space. You can do the same with your own charging station. ‘You earn a pocket money with that and you don't have to do anything for it,’ explains the student. ‘A lot of charging stations and parking spaces are not used during the day. Many people are at the office then. That's a waste, of course.’
But the app also works the other way. If you are looking for someone else's spot, you can also use the app to rent a space. ‘You know immediately where you stand. It's also often cheaper than in a garage or on the street,’ stresses the student. By the way, you can also use the app to reserve a normal parking space.
You already have a lot of parking apps competing with each other. Whether this is nowhere to be seen yet? ‘There are apps that do have something similar. This really needs to be a handy all-in-one app for parkers, which is not there yet,’ states the student. ‘That makes us unique.’ Many existing applications are also clunky and very slow, according to him.
80,000 lines of code
The study project is quite out of control. An entire student team is working full-time on the app. ‘The whole project now sits at around 80,000 lines of code. Fortunately, we love doing that,’ he laughs.
Castelein's idea made it to the finals of the award for ‘The Netherlands’ Most Innovative Student'. On 17 October, the eight finalists will ‘sell’ their project live in front of a jury and audience in Arnhem. The winner will get a trip to the real Silicon Valley.
In any case, the young student is dreaming big. ‘We want to become the number one parking app in the Netherlands. It would be great if we can go international as well.’ The app will be tested by a small group in November. The aim is for the app named ‘SimplePark’ to be available for everyone to use by the end of this year.
Source: Omroepbrabant.nl
Omroep Brabant also made a video report, explaining Lucas' app. You can watch it here.
There was also coverage of the app from Fontys. You can read the report in Bron here.
In addition, the NOS news programme also paid attention to this innovation. The report, part of the newsreel of Wednesday 9 October, starts at 12.00min.