Entertainment

Could This App Change The Way You Park Forever?

by Rosie Narasaki

Have you heard of ValPark Mobile before? It's one of the new entrepreneurial efforts set to swim with the Sharks on the upcoming episode of Shark Tank. It is, as fate would have it, a parking app that seeks to modernize life for car-owners everywhere. Following in the footsteps of convenience-oriented superstar apps like Lyft and Uber, ValPark Mobile is a new smartphone application that seeks to make all things parking-related more simple (just as its name — a portmanteau of "valet" and "park" — would suggest).

It's pretty all-inclusive — it does everything from locating and mapping various parking lots in the area to offering you price comparisons (you know, for all those times you cursed yourself for parking in a $7 flat rate lot after realizing there's $6 parking just around the corner). It also allows you to pay for said parking via phone, cutting out a lot of the cash/credit/debit hassle we face on a daily basis (especially here in LA, ugh), and if you're using valet service, you can request your car using the app, which means less waiting around outside in bad weather (always a plus in my book).

In a nutshell? It's an app that aims to solve all parking woes — an ambitious goal, yes, but I'm all for anything that makes life as a car-dependent Angeleno even slightly more palatable. Unfortunately, Valpark Mobile is currently only available in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia — that said, within those locations, it's available at over 100 different establishments. Plus, I'm sure their scope would expand, in the event that one of the Sharks decides to back the project.

So, where can you get Valpark Mobile for yourself? Well, in the app store, as it turns out: ValPark Mobile is currently available for iPhone and Android users, and you can snag the up-and-coming application for free in iTunes. For what it's worth, the app seems to have decent reviews online so far— on its iTunes page, it's garnered an average of 4.5 stars, taken from 11 ratings (not the biggest sample size, but still).

Convinced? Not quite convinced? And perhaps more importantly — will the Sharks be convinced? It's certainly an intriguing idea with the potential to be a game changer along the lines of Uber, but will Lori, Mark, Robert, Daymond, Barbara, and/or Kevin see fit to pull the trigger? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Images: Michael Desmond/ABC; Giphy