Car parking management companies have a rock bottom money grabbing reputation. We already know them as the automated bandits of the airport, railway station or retail park and it will only get worse.

Car parking is notorious for predatory fees. It starts with the booking fee, an extra £1 for the privilege of using their buggy mobile app because they've let the physical pay-and-display machine go to rust. Then comes a fine for spending more than five minutes struggling to get the buggy app to work or find a mobile signal. A fumbled keyboard leaves a one-letter mistake in your number plate for a further fine. A queue at a slow exit barrier pushes you into a further charge for over-time in the car park. Live in a hot country - premium fees are added for covered or shaded spaces.

Which leads us to the next opportunity for the parking bandits - Solar powered vehicles. Imagine driving an Aptera - the sleek, three-wheeled sci-fi car covered in solar panels. You pull onto the open-air top deck of a multi-storey, eager to soak up those glorious free rays of sunshine. Enter the parking management company's new goldmine. A camera scans the Aptera's solar roof and automatically adds the Solar-Enriched Parking Bay fee. For anyone without an Aptera, there will be a reciprocal Solar Enriched Blocking fine. 

Even the sunshine is no longer free.