The Deutsche Welle says the French city is installing public parking spot sensors under the pavement

“These technologies were developed to help stratospheric balloons land on Venus and communicate with each other without using heavy duty transmission equipment,” says Guell.

Guell says the balloons never made it to Venus for budgetary reasons. But their technology may soon be helping cars find parking spots in Toulouse and other cities in Europe and Canada that are interested in the project.

Supposedly it can tell a car from a truck based on the magnetic profile, and drivers are expected to pay their meter with a wireless chip on their windshield. Above all is the fact that drivers will be able to see in real time if there is parking.

French government studies show that 60 percent of urban pollution in France is due to idling cars searching for a place to park, which translates into 700 million wasted hours a year…

Unless they build a queuing or reservation system, however, it seems that people still will drive around wasting time, but far more anxiously — all trying to get to a spot before others when their phone alerts them. Maybe they can build in a control so drivers more than a few blocks from the spot will not be notified. It certainly sounds like a fun system to try and manipulate. I can imagine sending a false signal that parking is available on the other side of the village and then, while all the other cars race to get there, taking a spot nearby that is left open the old fashioned way.