The Parking.sg app is mighty hard to beat. It's easy to use and makes parking in any gantry-less car park straightforward. But roadside parking could soon become easier still.
Ahead of LTA's ERP 2.0 rollout, we got a chance to see the new OBU's roadside parking feature in action.
In case you haven't heard: LTA is scheduled to roll out the new ERP system come 2027. As part of this roll out, a total of 1,000 motorists are currently testing the various features of the new ERP and OBU.
And one of these features promised is a simplified roadside parking payment feature. But surpassing the Parking.sg app, as many users will attest, will be a tall order. We therefore wanted to see just how simple roadside parking payments with the new OBU could be. Here's what we found out.
And it turns out, operating the new ERP 2.0 system could not be any easier. Naturally, you'll first need to park the car. And once you're safely parked, the OBU touchscreen will offer a new circular logo with the letter 'P' within.
And here's where the new satellite-based technology comes into play: If the system is confident of the exact road that you're parking the car, all you need to do is tap the icon to confirm that you want to start the parking session and the system will automatically begin charging for the parking session after flashing the relevant parking information (including the parking charge rate).
However, if you're parked in close proximity of several parking locations, you'll need to confirm the exact one on the OBU touchscreen. In such cases, you may still need to step out of the vehicle to check the car park code, similar to today.
Still, the new system has plenty of merits. First off, unlike the Parking.sg app, payment for parking will continue if the car is not moved away from the lot. So, there's no need to reopen any app and extend the parking session if you've underestimated how long you're away from the car.
Better still, because the OBU uses satellite-based technology, you won't need to manually cancel your parking session - simply drive away. And from our experience, the system proved quite proficient at terminating your parking session: It ended ours just seconds after we drove away from the lot but didn't terminate the parking session if we were simply adjusting our vehicle within the lot.
And of course, the total amount charged to your card is also displayed on the OBU touchscreen as you're driving off.
LTA has previously announced that it plans to roll out ERP 2.0 come early 2027. The Parking.sg is currently still set to remain available even after the rollout of ERP 2.0.
