Pebble, a sensor that uses real-time data to manage city parking

Sidewalk Labs has announced the launch of Pebble, a vehicle sensor that’s designed to help manage parking in cities by providing real-time parking and curb availability data.

Small spherical sensors are stuck to the ground on parking spaces to note the absence or presence of a vehicle. Then solar-powered gateway hardware uses IoT to connect the sensor to the cloud through the cellular network. The data is then viewed and analyzed by real estate developers, parking operators or municipal agencies via a dashboard.

Pebble doesn’t use cameras or collect identifying information about a person or vehicle, and is touting a “privacy preserving” approach.