Finding the perfect parking spot can be extremely frustrating, especially during peak times of the year like holidays. Self-parking systems on new cars take away some of the pain of getting into the spot, but finding an open spot in a sea of parked cars is still incredibly time consuming. Ford ran a study based in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, which revealed drivers spend one day each year looking for a parking spot. This is an alarming statistic, but Ford has come up with a very clever solution to solve the parking spot problem.

Ford has been testing a new "collaborative parking" technology, which shares the parking sensor data from all of the parked cars in a lot. The company has released a short video using a Mondeo/Fusion to show off how it works.

The driver in the video is able to find a spot quickly, so the concept seems to be viable on paper. Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, Automated Driving Europe supervisor, Christian Ress, said, "With our research into 'Collaborative Parking', we see an opportunity to hand that time back to drivers, helping them enjoy happier, healthier and more efficient journeys." One of the problems we already foresee is the lack of parking sensors on older vehicles. Sensors are becoming more common, but they are not yet standardized. Clearly the idea isn't perfect, but we hate how annoying parking can be and we like Ford's solution here.