The parking nazis have come to Santa Monica: No free minutes for you!

New sensors that begin working today will cut meters' paid time down to zero once a space is empty, even if the woman who parked in a spot before you paid for way more time than she used.

Yep. According to a city of Santa Monica statement:

The meters, with sensors, also require all customers to pay for all of the time they park at the space by resetting the meter when a vehicle vacates the spot, encouraging the parking space to turn over. This is similar to long-standing operations of the City's off-street parking facilities.

Smart.

Not only that, but the new sensors will allow the meters to know when a car has overstayed its limit: No feeding the meter.

We're guessing here that you could cheat by pulling out of a space and pulling back in, but that remains to be seen: If you're caught it's a $64 ticket.

The 6,000 solar-powered meters with sensors will be installed in the downtown area in the coming year, according to Santa Monica officials:

The new meters even allow you to pay by phone and receive text messages alerting you that your time's almost up.

It would be cool if they could apply that technology to life itself.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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