Lot Vulture turns any existing IP or RTSP camera into an automated, real-time parking lot intelligence system. Circling the lot so you don't have to, Lot Vulture performs on-device computer vision inference directly on your camera feeds—delivering live space-level occupancy maps, historical scrubbing timelines, customizable alerts, and deep parking utilization analytics without requiring expensive physical in-ground sensors.
| Challenge with Traditional Solutions | How Lot Vulture Solves It |
|---|---|
| In-Ground Magnetic Sensors ($200–$500/spot): Expensive to core-drill, battery-dependent, and frequently destroyed by snowplows and asphalt repaving. | |
| Uses Existing Cameras: Turn standard CCTV, RTSP, or snapshot IP cameras into smart parking sensors with zero pavement alteration. | |
| Proprietary Sensor Hardware & Vendor Lock-In: Requires purchasing expensive proprietary single-vendor cameras or per-space overhead light indicators. | |
| Camera & Hardware Agnostic: Works with any standard RTSP, ONVIF, or snapshot IP camera from any manufacturer (Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, Hanwha, Ubiquiti, etc.). | |
| Noisy AI & False Flickers: Minor lighting shifts or tree shadows cause constant "space full / space free" notification spam. | |
| Dual-Threshold Hysteresis: Sticky state transitions ensure rock-solid, flicker-free dashboard data. | |
| Manual Lot Audits: Attendants driving golf carts with clipboards or radios providing only delayed, periodic estimates. | |
| Live Digital Dashboard & Historical Timeline: Real-time occupancy map, second-by-second scrubbing, and automated alerting. |
- 📍
Interactive Visual Space Editor: Define exact parking spots in seconds with a high-precision polygon canvas powered by Vue-Konva. Supports angled, parallel, and tight-row parking configurations. - ⚡
High-Performance Edge AI Engine: Powered by
vulturevision
(C++ ONNX Runtime with native DirectML on Windows and CUDA on Linux) with automatic CPU fallback. - 🔭 Visual Scrubbing History Timeline: Scrub through every minute of the day with second-by-second precision. Click any space to see exact visual snapshots of state transitions. - ⚙️ Smart Sensitivity (Hysteresis Logic): Dual-threshold certainty eliminates status bouncing during dusk, rain, snow, or transient occlusions. - 🔔 Multi-Channel Alerting Subsystem: Trigger Webhooks, MQTT messages (ideal for Home Assistant & smart signage), or Emails on lot capacity thresholds, single space transitions, or camera health events. - 🔄 Human-in-the-Loop "Improve AI" Feedback: Operators can flag and correct misdetections directly from the UI to continuously feed the training pipeline. - 🛡️ Role-Based Multi-User Access: Granular roles for operators, managers, and view-only analytics dashboards.
Download the latest standalone installer (LotVulture_Setup_*.exe
) from the ** Releases** page.
- Packages the complete web dashboard, C++ DirectML runtime, and background Windows service daemon.
- No WSL, Docker, or external dependencies required.
- Launch the app or open
http://localhost:8000
in your browser.
Run the official container with GPU acceleration:
docker run -d \
--name lotvulture \
--restart unless-stopped \
-p 8000:8000 \
--gpus all \
-v lotvulture-data:/var/lib/lotvulture \
ghcr.io/lotvulture/lotvulture:latest
(If running on a system without an NVIDIA GPU, omit --gpus all — Lot Vulture will automatically utilize optimized CPU inference.)
Access the dashboard at ** http://localhost:8000**.
version: '3.8'
services:
lotvulture:
image: ghcr.io/lotvulture/lotvulture:latest
container_name: lotvulture
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "8000:8000"
environment:
- VULTURE_LV_HOME=/var/lib/lotvulture
volumes:
- lotvulture-data:/var/lib/lotvulture
deploy:
resources:
reservations:
devices:
- driver: nvidia
count: all
capabilities: [gpu]
Run with:
docker compose up -d
Connect Your Cameras: Add RTSP stream URLs or snapshot endpoints in the Cameras view.Draw Parking Zones: Use the visual canvas editor to map the four corners of each space.Automate & Monitor: Real-time occupancy states stream immediately over WebSockets to your live dashboard.Trigger Actions: Stream lot availability to digital LED road signs via MQTT, notify staff when capacity hits 95%, or log audit history.
Lot Vulture is source-available with a commercial tier:
| Feature | Community Edition | Commercial License |
|---|---|---|
| Inference Model | ||
| Bundled Standard Model | High-Accuracy Commercial Model | |
| Visual Space Editor & Live Dashboard | ||
| ✅ Included | ✅ Included | |
| Visual History Timeline & Scrubbing | ||
| ✅ Included | ✅ Included | |
| Webhooks & MQTT Alerts | ||
| ✅ Included | ✅ Included | |
| GPU Acceleration (CUDA / DirectML) | ||
| ✅ Included | ✅ Included | |
| Commercial Monitoring Services | ||
| ✅ Permitted (with baseline model) | ✅ Permitted (with licensed seats) | |
| Cloud Telemetry & Continuous Retraining | ||
| — | ✅ Included | |
| Priority Support & Multi-Camera Scaling | ||
| Community | Dedicated |
To activate a commercial license or start a free 14-day trial, navigate to the License & Billing tab in your dashboard.
Want on-demand parking space detection in your own application without managing on-prem infrastructure?
Use the ** Lot Vulture Developer Cloud API** ($0.02 / image):
curl -X POST "https://api.lotvulture.com/v1/detect" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-F "image=@parking_lot.jpg" \
-F 'rois=[[[120,340],[250,340],[260,490],[110,490]]]'
Architecture deep dive, local environment setup, and C++ engine compilation.Developer Guide:Running unit, integration, and performance tests.Testing Guide:Guidelines for community contributions and pull requests.Contribution Guidelines:
Copyright (c) 2026 Lot Vulture, LLC. All rights reserved.
This software is licensed under the ** Lot Vulture Source License 1.0.0 (Adapted from PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0)**.
Permitted Use: Broad permission to run, modify, and utilize the software internally and for commercial monitoring services.Noncompete Condition: You may not use the software to build, distribute, or sell a competing product or managed service, nor distribute modified vision engines designed to bypass licensing.Commercial Model: High-accuracy commercial neural network weights and cloud attestation assets are licensed separately under theCommercial Terms of Service.
Lot Vulture — Making parking smarter, one spot at a time.