Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac spotted this $0.99 app for the iPhone 3GS. It's called Car Finder and it helps you find your parked car.
The app uses the iPhone's camera to overlay the direction of your car and how far away it is. The app relies on the camera and a digital compass, and is compatible only with the iPhone 3GS running 3.1 or later.
Car Finder iPhone App Uses Augmented Reality To Find Your Wheels
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i like the idea. but with GPS not allowed to doing heights, how will it help for multi-level parking structures?
still, for 99 cents, im game.
Unless you drive a black, silver or white rental every other day, never remembering which, only idiots soon parted with their money will be buying this app. But that's the point (for app developers), right?
Accuracy: +/- 47 meters (150 feet)
Source: Screen shot
"GPS Accuracy: +/- 47 m"
So it leads me to my car, or some point within 150 feet of my car? I'm not sure how much of an improvement that is in most scenarios.
I thunk of this and thought about doing it instead of Pharce, but unfortunately at the time iPhone didn't have the magnetic compass, and my lack of extra money/time after the compass came out was prohibitive :-(
I was also put off by the inaccuracy of the GPS...
or when you park you can just set a gps point on your map and then just come back to it when you're done. really, you're paying 99 cents for someone to do something with your phone you can already do.
My android phone already does this.
The iphone comes with GPS/w maps, a camera, a notepad and a voice memo function. If those standard tools don't help you find your car, perhaps you have greater problems.
Umm. What happened to using that little remote key that most cars now come with?
To be fair, I can see this being a valuable tool if you're frequently parking your car in the wilderness.
I think this could be really useful for someone without in-building parking in a city. I live in a neighborhood where parking is a total joke and, back when I did have a car, I definitely spent time wandering around trying to remember where I'd parked on more than one occasion. Even getting within 150 would have been damned handy some of those days.
How about jotting down one's car coordinates on a little piece of scrap paper before walking to one's destination on foot?
Yeah, that's so much more practical than spending a dollar and using the tool you already have in your pocket.
Or just drive a car that doesn't look like any of the other cars. Works for me.
I drive a silver Ford Focus. Apparently, so does everyone else in my neighborhood (who isn't driving a minivan or an SUV anyways). I've gone to get groceries and come out to find five or six in the grocery parking lot so many times that I've stopped commenting on it.
The grocery parking lot is small enough that I don't need a GPS unit to find my car, but the damn St. Laurent Mall parking lot is insane. It encircles the entire mall AND I get lost in that mall all the time, and I never know if the exit I'm near is anywhere near the part of the parking lot I left my car in... (or the 10 or so other silver Ford Focuses out there...)
Hey, I drive a 'Sandstone' (gold) Chevy Cobalt and though I've had it for 3 years I still can't find it in parking lots. I usually resort to parking next to the carriage corals at the grocery store so I have fewer places to check for it when carrying bags.
It doesn't have one of those clicky things, either. :(
Why I bought it in the first place is, sadly, a long story... as is why I haven't traded it in for something a bit snazzier.
As someone who has wandered through a massive Disney parking lot at noontime trying to find my rental; this would be useful.
But of course, it would mean remembering to use the app. A feat all on its own.
IMHO, if you are unable to locate your own automobile without assistance from your phone, you have absolutely no business being out in public unsupervised.
@slugabed - the worst thing about trying to find a rental is when you can't remember the colour or model of the damned thing. I've had to phone the rental company and ask them what it was I was driving...
Marking your parking site with a waypoint is a standard hiker's GPS trick. Cute to dress it up like this though. 47m is poor GPS though, maybe they were getting bad signal. Oughta get down to around 10m.
What if the little tool in your pocket* runs out of battery power
*no comment
I once parked my car in a lot in Boston and couldn't find it later because I went looking for it in the wrong lot.
Hey, I was young.
No business being out in public? Yet there are a lot of us out there; we survive, reproduce, and get graduate degrees.
--Beryl
I just set my car on fire. It saves me a bunch of time finding it, and I can catch a ride right to it. Sometimes the firemen even let me flash the lights and ring the siren! Woo!
If you're too drunk to find your car, you should not be driving it.
Yes, the Android has had it all along.
The problem -- and I assume iPhone has it too -- is that you have to remember to note your location when you park. When you come back out to the parking lot later, it's too late.
I know many women that could use this daily for finding their keys back (in or outside their huges bags)