Parking Enforcement Officers Use Google Glass to Hand Out Tickets Rapidly

As if Google Glass wasn’t unpopular enough, the device has now found its way to parking enforcement officers, who are using it to hand out at tickets at rates that make the future proud.

Parking agents in Tampere, Finland are now wielding Google Glass to check parked cars approximately four times as fast as they could without the now-certifiably-lame accessory. A local software company designed a program that allows an officer to simply peek at a car’s registration number and then tap the side of the glasses to initiate a search of the city’s EasyPark mobile system. If the car owner didn’t pay online or use the old-fashioned meters, the program quickly prints and registers a ticket.

“One example is that in an hour and a half it checks 600 cars, which is about a quarter of the time it took with the old equipment,” said Essi Pihlajamäki, head of product at Vincit, the company that designed the program.

The success of the pilot program has convinced several other Finnish cities to take up Google Glass enforcement. Stockholm, as well as cities in Australia, have also expressed interest in adopting the new tactic, according to Pihlajamäki.

The surprise popularity of the Google Glass parking enforcement method comes as something of a mixed blessing for the device. The device has yet to gain any real market traction, and any use is better than none. But, of course, a close association with parking enforcement doesn’t exactly scream public relations winner.

The only good news for Google may be that soon enough the glasses will be obsolete for parking enforcement. Vincit expects that drones will soon eliminate the need for officers altogether, checking registration and handing out tickets from the sky.

Damn, now drones aren’t even cool anymore. The government ruins everything!