Games · Parking

Parking: free online car parking game

Cars seen from above, a real steering wheel and a beeping reverse gear. Thirty parking levels: angled, nose-in, parallel, garages, slopes and after the roundabout, plus a new space every day. Free, no account needed.

How to play

• On a phone, turn the big wheel on the left with your finger: it stays where you leave it, like in a real car, and the small axle in the middle shows where the front wheels point. Double-tap the wheel to centre it. On the right, hold DRIVE or REVERSE; let go and the car brakes by itself. On a computer, use the arrow keys or W, A, S and D.
• The right space is marked in yellow on the ground. You win when the whole car is inside and nearly straight: the space turns green and the bar fills if you stay still for a second. In reverse you hear the beep and see the white lights; the sensors beep faster as you get close to something.
• Hitting a car, a pillar, a cone or the kerb counts as a bump: on the third, you fail the level. In the later levels there are pedestrians and cars passing by, who stop if you get in their way. There are V coins in tricky spots (collect them all for an extra star) and, on timed levels, clocks that add 5 seconds.
• Each level gives up to 3 stars: 3 with no bumps within the target time, 2 with one bump or a little slower, 1 just for parking. The leaderboard adds up your best on every level: 100 points per star plus a time bonus of up to 50. The Parking of the day gives up to 3000 points, minus 20 per second and 500 per bump.

Where paid parking comes from

The world’s first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, in the United States, on 16 July 1935. It was the idea of Carl Magee, a local newspaperman, to stop cars sitting all day in the same downtown spot: you put in a coin and a pointer showed the time left.

Parking sensors are much more recent. The most common ones use ultrasound: they send out a sound too high for us to hear and measure how long the echo takes to come back. The closer the obstacle, the faster they beep, until the sound is continuous. Today many cars also add reversing cameras.

Free game, no betting and no prizes. The places and cars are made up. Your progress is saved on this device.