Developing mobile applications is not what it was a couple of years ago. Heck, with the rise of LLMs, it’s not even what it was a couple of months ago. Adding AI functionalities to your apps and leveraging AI-powered tools quickly becomes the new norm in software development. At SashiDo we’re making sure we accommodate the needs of such emerging AI applications as they grow. In this post, I’ll introduce you to Parky.AI - one of those applications that solve real live problems with the help of AI and SashiDo.
What Is Parky.AI?
Parky.AI, a product of Underlabs, is an incredibly user-friendly application designed to simplify the process of understanding parking signs. The idea of the app was actually born when the company’s CTO received a parking ticket, which according to him was due to the confusing signs in the area.
Image source: https://bobrtimes.com/
With Parky.AI, all you need to do is snap a picture of any parking sign, and voilà! You'll receive an instant explanation, making parking woes a thing of the past. What's even better is that every picture you take not only helps you at the moment but also contributes to training the AI model that drives the app, ensuring even greater accuracy for future use. The end result is parking made simple!
How Parky Leverages AI?
In Montreal, it’s a common practice to have multiple signs for a single zone, often stacked on single or neighboring poles. This makes it pretty confusing for many citizens if they can park or not, including the CTO of Underlabs. So he thought that it might be a good idea to leverage the advancements in AI to help drivers navigate this maze of parking regulations and save them some financial costs on tickets.
Image source: https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/
The Underlabs team wholeheartedly embraced the challenge of interpreting parking signs, delving into AI solutions for a suitable answer. They opted to harness the power of OpenAI’s models.
Thanks to this cutting-edge technology, whenever a user uploads a photo of a single or a group of parking signs, the model can swiftly determine whether parking is permitted or not, providing an instant response. Currently, the model is 83% accurate for single signs and 74 percent accurate for multiple signs. But it's learning. A message on the app says every photo helps perfect the AI's responses. Users can also report errors proactively.
With this powerful collaboration between users and the advanced model, Parky.AI remains ever-prepared to assist drivers in comprehending the most intricate street parking scenarios the city may present.
User & Data Privacy
Parky.AI takes its users' privacy seriously and follows a strict privacy policy. The app does not require users to create accounts or provide GPS or IP location data. Data is only collected if a user reports an inaccuracy, and even then, only essential details are stored on SashiDo's Montreal servers to improve the accuracy of the AI system. So users can rest assured that Parky.AI handles their data responsibly and securely.
Additionally, all of the SashiDo customers' data is stored in separate access-controlled databases per application. Customers with multiple applications are assigned separate databases per application to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access between applications inside and outside the specific hosting region chosen for the application.
SashiDo’s infrastructure is hosted and managed in the OVH data centers in Montreal, Canada. OVH’s data center operations have been accredited under ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification for the Information Security Management System of Dedicated Servers, PCI-DSS Level 1, SOC1 and SOC2, and CSA. All OVHcloud dedicated servers include optimum anti-DDoS technology to provide the best protection against complex and sophisticated attacks and ensure business continuity.
Parky.AI Development & Performance
To ensure the Parky.AI app's performance remains consistent throughout its development stages, the Underlabs’ team harnesses the power of SashiDo’s features, especially the neat Engines. This feature allows them to effortlessly scale horizontally or vertically with a simple click on the dashboard, while also giving them the flexibility to choose between auto-scale mode on or off. Additionally, they gain the ability to manage and optimize their usage and costs beyond the constraints of standard plans.
The initial development phase of the app took about 7-8 weeks until released into production and of course, the default engine setup was more than sufficient for this stage. But going to production changed their needs as in the first week after release, the app was downloaded 10,000 times!
"Every eight hours, in the first two days, we had to double our server capacity." said Andrei Chira, a senior software engineer at Underlabs.
As the app gained momentum and started attracting more requests, the developers further experimented by scaling horizontally and using multiple Development engines. Eventually, they also opted to upscale to Production type of engines to easily accommodate the growing number of requests and ensure sufficient capacity as the app’s popularity has exceeded the team’s expectations.
Smooth User Experience & No Latency
User experience is crucial for Parky.AI and any app aiming to gain traction fast. Slow loading times lead to user drop-offs, making server location vital. One of the reasons, Underlabs chooses SashiDo for hosting Parky.AI is due to its servers in Montreal, Canada – matching their user base location. This proximity ensures a smooth experience with no latency issues. SashiDo offers multiple regions for hosting based on your audience's location, delivering faster speeds and improved SEO. Check prices and conduct speed tests for each region.
Parky.AI Success On The Apple App Store
Parky.AI was first released to the Apple App Store in May 2023. In just 2 days the app ranked #3 in the Navigation category and in just a couple of weeks, it went up to #2 right after Google Maps!
Image source: https://www.instagram.com/parky.ai/
Currently, the application is available for iOS, but very soon it will also be available for Android as well.
About Underlabs.ca
Underlabs is a Montreal-based app development agency that has been on the market for more than 13 years now. Underlabs is one of Canada's Top software engineering development workshops. They are specializing in native cross-platform app development for both enterprises and startups. Amongst their happy customers are companies like Aéroport de Montréal, DAC Aviation, IATA, Epic Staff, Ag Grow Consulting, Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Jewish General Hospital, The Montréal Canadiens, Royal & SunAlliance Canada, Morgan Stanley New York, and more.
About SashiDo
SashiDo is a mBaaS platform that enables developers to build any API they need in no time and with Zero DevOps. We provide serverless infrastructure which is secured by design, ready-to-use and closely monitored 24/7.
Our platform offers a fully-managed service currently powering 19k+ Parse applications, more than 122 million end customers, 225 million devices accessing the apps using our infrastructure which is located on 4 continents. Some of the companies trusting us with their apps are Product Hunt, County of Los Angeles, KORG, Cirque Du Soleil, USGA, The Leading Professional Golf Organization, and more.
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If you are developing an AI application and looking for a hosting solution or you need some help developing your new AI project, SashiDo and Underlabs’ teams will be happy to help. Do not hesitate to contact us!
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