INRIX, the Kirkland, Wash.-based traffic technology company, is supplying parking data for Waze, the popular navigation app powered by driver input.
The partnership was announced this morning. INRIX’s data on nearby parking lots is now incorporated into the Waze app’s “where to park” feature on iOS and Android. The tool allows Waze users to find a route to a parking lot near their destination, or find a nearby lot once they’ve arrived.
The partnership is notable in part because Waze and INRIX are competitors in the mobile navigation market. When Google acquired Waze for more than $1 billion in 2013, an INRIX spokesman at the time called the price tag “incredible.”
“Driving around looking for spots impacts arrival times and adds unneeded frustration and stress to the entire driving experience,” said Flavia Sasaki Siqueira, head of business development for Waze, in a news release announcing the partnership today. “As the co-pilot for driver navigation, Waze has begun to rollout the first of its parking suite features to solve this issue for drivers. Combining INRIX parking information with our own parking database expands reach and accuracy of the ‘where to park’ feature.”
Waze is adding INRIX’s parking data to its own crowdsourced data to improve the new feature. INRIX has been offering off-street parking tools since 2013 and an on-street feature since last year. In August 2015, the company acquired ParkMe, an app that tracks off-street parking availability and prices.
Terms of the deal between INRIX and Waze were not disclosed.
