Robotic parking garage in action

Anyone who's ever seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off will appreciate the advantages of a worker-less garage, namely the inability of a robotic parking structure to take your million dollar Ferrari for a joyride in an attempt to achieve maximum air. No, the reliable NYC parkhaus built by Automotion Parking Systems prides itself on the fact that only one car has been damaged since the company began installations 11 years ago -- unlike the rather troublesome record of its competitor Robotic Parking, whose Garden Street Garage in Hoboken once trapped over 300 vehicles for 24+ hours and reportedly made some expensive 'oopsies' with a Jeep and a Cadillac. APS's New York location, on the other hand, appears to be the model of safety and efficiency; a Popular Mechanics video shows the whole system in a perfect dance of precise timing and fluid motion, appropriately set to a backdrop of Strauss' The Blue Danube. And with $25 daily / $400 monthly rates for parking in the middle of Manhattan, the new garage offers pretty competitive rates as well -- but remember, while human valets may take the occasional sweet ride out for a spin, at least they're not susceptible to the software malfunctions and trojans / worms / viruses that could leave your vehicle stranded high and dry while the techies rush to figure out a fix. Click on to watch the PM vid in its entirety...

[Via Autoblog]

[Rajiv Kotecha @ Mar 6th 2007 2:11PM]

Pretty insane...looks like minority report is finally coming true! (Well, parts of it anyway :p)

[Matt @ Mar 6th 2007 2:50PM]

I thought it was iRobot that had the robotic parking garage.

[Nick @ Mar 6th 2007 2:15PM]

Fluid, smooth, classy.
Not too expensive either.

[M Burke @ Mar 6th 2007 2:46PM]

Saw one of these 20 years ago in Japan.

[Josh @ Mar 6th 2007 2:49PM]

Personally, I like the garage seen in I,Robot. This does seem to be a step in that direction though

[Eric Rodewald @ Mar 6th 2007 2:50PM]

Two points for using a TiAg Silver BMW M3 convertible sport!

[anonymous @ Mar 6th 2007 2:54PM]

why does it have to be subject to trojans, worms and such? who said it is not a self-contained system? Once it works like it's supposed to, what updates would it need? If needed, they can be done locally connected computer.

[SuperQ @ Mar 6th 2007 4:31PM]

Exactly, most of these robotic systems are built with PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) systems. They're written in a very simple and reliable language. The fancy GUI front-end generally talks to the PLC via serial and issues simple commands like "Fetch Car 352" or "Store car", and the PLC has the real vehicle moving logic that is totally isolated from any typical PC crap. This is the kind of system we used to use in our factory automation stuff at an automotive plant I worked for. We had linux front-ends for database and barcode scanning, and then the robotic conveyor was a non-networked separate system with separate barcode scanners.

[Wonderboy @ Mar 6th 2007 3:18PM]

Wow, that Matt Sullivan has some very impressive art-ic-you-lay-shun.

[Erik @ Mar 6th 2007 3:27PM]

so what happens when you leave the car in reverse?

[Arno @ Mar 6th 2007 3:38PM]

What happens if you leave the car in neutral?

Someone should make a video of that.

[Mike @ Mar 6th 2007 3:40PM]

Is there a separate Entrance and Exit area? Otherwise if someone was trying to get in while it was bringing your car out, you'd have issues.

But I'd use these things in a second. The time savings along would make it worth paying an extra buck or two. No more driving in circles for 5 minutes trying to find a spot. Park it, and Forget it.

Hopefully as they get more mainstreamed, they'll get cheaper to build and will become more common. Especially since you can cram so many more vehicles in the same space that just rocks.

[Gil @ Mar 6th 2007 5:31PM]

It costs *less* than a normal parking garage

[Meep UK @ Mar 6th 2007 3:45PM]

Minority Report? They had this is the Thunderbirds, that one even used pallets. Though in the end it crashed, causing a fire and trapping people.....Lets just hope that bit doesn't come true.

[pyro @ Mar 6th 2007 4:04PM]

How long before someone stays in their car and gets trapped down there? Some idiot is gonna do it soon. I'm sure theres an emergency button down there though.

[GeneMack @ Mar 6th 2007 4:50PM]

There are motion sensors to detect that nobody is left in the vehicle. Entirely foolproof? No. But at least they thought of that ahead of time.

Thermal imagery would probably be the safest check that no person (or more likely, no pet) is left in the car. Probably would add to the cost and introduce more problems though.

[Paula @ Mar 6th 2007 4:18PM]

"I'm afraid I can't let you park there, Dave."

[tito @ Mar 6th 2007 4:36PM]

They've had cooler ones than these in Japan for almost 20 years.....get with the times..

[Nathan M @ Mar 6th 2007 5:09PM]

Major problem is that a still-warm engine is going to look like a small person to thermals, until it cools down.

[Al @ Mar 6th 2007 5:57PM]

Those are some SICK laser scanners on the ceiling!

[Brian Laks @ Mar 6th 2007 6:19PM]

I can see these gaining in popularity in cities like NY and LA where population densities are high.

[Darien @ Mar 6th 2007 6:30PM]

As others have mentioned bring on the I, Robot huge underground robotic parking garages!

[Adam @ Mar 6th 2007 6:48PM]

+ with something like this i would feel a lot safer as the car won't get broken into a robbed.

[Alexkapone @ Mar 6th 2007 6:58PM]

I like the idea, but I can't see waiting for my car to come out in a line in any sort of busy garage, wait times would be terrible. For a small high class condo complex where the garage is part of the package this would be great, or long term parking like an airport.

One solution would be to have a phone number that could be called ahead that would bring your car up and park it in maybe one of a relative number of regular parking spaces a few minutes before you've said you were going to need it. That would really make it more efficient and reduce waiting

[jozue @ Mar 7th 2007 6:36PM]

alexkapone beat me to it:)

[Vagrant @ Mar 6th 2007 8:11PM]

Looks like New York has a new baby sitter! ;)

[anonymous @ Mar 6th 2007 8:13PM]

these things have been in taiwan for a REALLY long time now...

[Homer @ Mar 6th 2007 10:27PM]

GO HOBOKEN!

[Pal @ Mar 7th 2007 1:47AM]

As others have mentioned, I saw these in Japan over 20 years ago as well. The system, however, is a lot simpler (and in my opinion, faster and more efficient): on a ferris wheel like arrangement, cars park on platform, platform moves clockwise (no transferring to different areas, no shuffling). Each car is on its own platform, and take up much less space since the building is vertically inclined. When you're ready to go, the wheel turns till your car comes around and you drive away happy.

[Pal @ Mar 7th 2007 1:49AM]

Oh, forgot to mention. I live in Okinawa and I'm friends with a hotel owner, and he told me that the G.I./pilots staying there are always intrigued and wowed by his parking system. Gotta be efficient when land is scarce!

[ts @ Mar 7th 2007 7:27AM]

Trojans and worms are irrelevant in practice. What is relevant is that the robot is both the bottleneck and the weak link. When there are two or three or more cars that need to park or leave everyone has to wait. And when the robot malfunctins all 67 cars are trapped. I had one nearby 10 years ago. They spent millions reconverting the hole into a regular parking.

[Shmoe @ Mar 7th 2007 10:41AM]

I, for one, welcome our car-parking robot overlords. And yes, we will have to tip them soon.

[jozue @ Mar 7th 2007 6:36PM]

but the waiting times to retreive/store your car have to be a pain. if not now, they will be in the future as they get more popular.

[Whatsizface @ Mar 14th 2007 4:17PM]

I, for one, welcome our new car-parking, Strauss-spewing, robotic overlords.

[Ali Shah @ Apr 5th 2007 11:20PM]

It's about time we're catching up to Japan.