A new app that could cut the time taken to find parking by up to 50% in cities has launched.

The Find & Pay tool creates a parking probability map for easier location of spaces and payment of sessions.

Developed by the technologists behind the EasyPark parking app, the Find & Pay tool uses transaction data with crowd-sourced location information from users and IoT devices to create a parking probability map of every city block for any given hour of the day.

The app gives users a route to their destination that passes along streets with the highest probability of parking availability and weighs up time in-car against walking distance to destination to find the optimal route. It also provides turn-by-turn navigation along the route, also noting available off-street parking along the route, and lets users remotely manage and pay for the parking space when they arrive.

As well as cutting driver time and hassle, the technology also has the potential to reduce emissions in cities.

According to studies, 30% of traffic in congested cities is caused by people searching for parking, and that this could contribute to as much as 50 million tons of pollution across Europe.

Find & Pay is currently undergoing large-scale beta testing, using over 500 testers across 31 cities, and will launch in Stockholm in September followed by rollout across over 30 major European cities during the fall. London and New York will follow in 2018 and beyond.