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SoCal mall installs 'Find Your Car' kiosks in parking garage to help you find your car -- and others find you?
Big Brother's watching us on public streets and in our homes, and now he's fixed his gaze on shopping malls -- under the guise of helping us find our cars in a mall parking garage. Santa Monica Place has installed Park Assist's M3 Camera Vision system with "Find Your Car" kiosks that allow wayward shoppers to punch in their license plate number to receive a picture of their auto and its whereabouts. It utilizes a network of cameras to capture each car's location and read the plate, and has a central control system that can dole out firmware upgrades as more (nefarious?) needs arise. A similar system is used at Heathrow Airport, though the British version snaps a photo of your plates upon entry and tracks cars with infrared cameras -- as opposed to Park Assist's use of hi-res cameras to capture an image of your plate once you've parked. While helping people find their cars is an admirable goal, the system seems rife with opportunities for abuse because the footage is privately owned -- meaning the car location information could be sold to anyone, including that crazy ex-girlfriend of yours. As for us, we'd rather not exchange a walk-on part in the war to maintain our privacy for a lead role in another video cage. We're just fine remembering things the old-fashioned way, thanks.
Heathrow Airport's parking garage to get automated tracking system
Finally, someone has had the kindness to step in and solve the age-old problem of finding your car at the airport. Britain's Heathrow -- a major hub for scores of European airlines and their travelers -- is about to unleash a new wing known as Terminal 5, and as part of the package, its parking lot is getting an upgrade. A new automated system in the garage will snap a photo of your license plate as you head in, direct you to a space using illuminated arrows and an infrared camera tracking system, then issue a ticket which can be read at a kiosk when you get back. When you insert the stub into the reader, a digital display shows you a 3D map of the carpark, and points you to the exact location of your vehicle. According to planners, the project will reduce traffic, cut carbon emissions by 397 tons per year, and will halve the number of relationship-ending arguments that occur while trying to find a car.[Thanks, Rastrus]
Rogue vehicle leaves motorists stranded in car park
We've definitely heard of cellphones causing certain keys to not work properly, but this story just takes the proverbial cake. For reasons unknown, a small family car left in a UK car park was found to be intermittently sending out signals which blocked over a dozen other key fobs from functioning. Reportedly, the vehicle's owner was "unaware of the problems his car had been causing," but the malicious whip had been setting off alarms and leaving motorists without a way to unlock and / or crank up their own rides. Interestingly, there's no mention as to what exactly was wreaking all that havoc, but the owner of the ill-willed motorcar has reportedly promised to fix the issue (or call off the prank). [Via TheRegister]
Survey sez LED lit parking garages seem safer
We had a sneaking suspicion that there was an ulterior motive behind Raleigh getting lit up as the "world's first LED city," and aside from savings tons of dough on energy bills over the next decade or so, it seems to make motorists feel a good bit safer, too. According to a before and after survey conducted by Mindwave Research, the number of respondents who "perceived the garage as very safe increased by 76-percent after the LED fixtures were installed." Admittedly, the newfangled lighting certainly added a new level of brightness to the situation, and the number of individuals who gave the garage an overall rating of "excellent" increased by 100-percent in response. The (unnecessarily lengthy) survey also added a few more minor figures to further prove that LED lighting is simply superior to the other stuff , but we're not yet sure if Cree will successfully use this ammunition to grab even more contracts to freshen up the city lights.
Robotic parking garage hits New York
Although international locales have warmed up quite nicely to automated parking garages, they haven't proven quite as popular here on American soil, and although Fort Lauderdale has one (and the Florida-based Hollywood Grande has one in the works), we'd say it's about time the Big Apple got one of its own. Notably, the controversial Robotic Parking Systems, Inc. that crafted the court-entangled deck in Hoboken, New Jersey won't have a hand in this one, as Automotion Parking Systems (the US subsidiary of Germany's Stolzer Parkhaus) will be utilizing its highly proclaimed technology to hopefully save New Yorkers from the same "drops and traps" that Garden State folks have unfortunately had to deal with. The company stated that in the 11 years it has crafted robotic garages, "only one car has been damaged," and it feels that even that single issue has been resolved with the latest sensor / laser upgrades. In fact, Ari Milstein, the director of planning for the firm, boldly stated that it's "a complete virtual impossibility that damage can occur," which most certainly leaves little no room for error. The Chinatown-based garage will hoist, shuffle, and park vehicles without a single human supervisor, stuffing 67 vehicles into a space that could typically hold 24, and it even spins your ride around when you return so there's no need to throw it in reverse when exiting. Rates actually aren't too outrageous either, as you'll be asked for around $400 for a monthly pass, or $25 if you're just in for the day.
Legal woes over robotic parking garage
Robotic parking garages, albeit very few and far between, aren't exactly new creations, but the original fully-automated deck in Hoboken, New Jersey has found itself the center of unwanted attention. For those unfamiliar with the process, bustling commuters follow computerized instructions to park (and exit) their vehicle on a steel slab, where the car is then hoisted upward and slid into an open bay until recalled. The robotic car shufflers can cram 324 vehicles into a 100- by 100-foot lot, which is more than double the amount traditional lots hold. But all has not been well for the automated car-lifters -- the city of Hoboken has been locked in a bitter dispute with Robotic Parking, which owns the software that operates the garage, over a contractual violation dealing with the intellectual property owned solely by the company. After the city decided to change the deck's management, they failed to stop using the proprietary software that was licensed to them, while succeeding in cutting off Robotic Parking's royalties. As expected, legal blows starting flying as Hoboken reportedly claimed there were "booby traps" in the company's software (but they kept using it?), while Robotic Parking demanded reparations for the unpaid use of their code. The dust has began to settle, at least somewhat, as both parties recently agreed to a deal in which the city shells out $5,500 / month for "licensure and support" of the software for the next three years, after which we assume Robotic Parking will promptly be kicked to the curb. This definitely isn't the first time lawsuits have caused headaches in consumer electronics, and it's presumably not the last, but it just goes to show that you should probably see if certain things are "reserved" before pulling on in.
