By: Joe Gomez
SpotAngels is mapping parking in cities with spot-by-spot detail, gathering data on street cleaning, alternate side parking, meters, and more. They license their parking maps to automotive OEMs which supports a free consumer app for iOS and Android. The app is helping people find parking and avoid the feeling of indescribable rage when discovering a parking ticket on their windshield. Co-founder Hamza Ouazzani Chahdi tells us about the recent launch with our Maps SDK for Mobile.
What is your approach to mapping parking in cities?
We first record 360° images of the streets we want to map and then extract parking information with proprietary computer vision technology. We also partner with cities and parking companies to gather parking prices and other information you can’t obtain from imagery. Finally, we rely on our users to send us pictures of parking signage when the map needs to be updated.
Can you describe the initial challenges you faced in designing parking maps?
We were using Apple Maps on iOS and Mapbox on Android. The iOS app was lagging when users explored the map or zoomed out to see more data. Additionally, we didn’t have much control over the style of our map, and we had to push a new version of the app each time we wanted to do UI modifications. Mapbox is amazing for us because we can load more data faster, and we’re able to control the style of the map from Mapbox Studio without pushing a new version of the app. It is way more convenient to have the same map for both iOS and Android.
What made you seek alternatives for displaying map data?
GeoJSON quickly showed its limits. We had to implement our own tiling logic and restrict the amount of data shown because it was using a lot of memory. After meeting with one of your engineers, we realized vector tiles were the solution for us, even if our data is dynamic and changes every few minutes.
You mentioned the map is significantly faster since switching to vector tiles.
Simply put, switching from GeoJSON to vector tiles made us progress from displaying data in small batches (maybe 10 x 10 blocks) still with performance issues to being able to display data for the whole city of San Francisco smoothly. The map itself is styled using Studio, so we basically moved most of the client-side logic and styling to the backend, making an easily unified experience that can be updated without pushing new versions of the app.
Can you tell us about some of the new interactivity you’ve built in?
One of the main challenges was to make the parking spots “tappable”. When a user selects a parking spot, we display detailed information like time limits and street cleaning hours. We used Studio to add icons to our segments so it’s easy for our users to understand that parking spots are interactive. Overall, Mapbox made it super easy to implement our ideas in terms of design and engineering. From the rendering of the map to the styling, what would have taken months to build was done in a few weeks. The support offered by your mobile and engineering teams was top notch and priceless.
Download the SpotAngels app and hopefully never see a parking ticket again. If you’re mapping large, dynamic datasets on a mobile device, check out our Maps SDK for iOS and Android. Get started designing a custom map style in Studio and use it across platforms. Want to know more? Reach out to our sales team.
SpotAngels mobile parking maps was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.