Driving and parking in Manhattan may be easier with a robotic parking garage in Chinatown. No, robots do not actually park your car. Instead, the garage itself has movable platforms (called pallets – think of an elevator for cars that move sideways too) that file your vehicle away. The advantage is lowered overhead costs and packing 67 cars in a apartment basement that would normally hold only 24. Plus, no humans!
The entire system is computer-calculated so you won’t be in for any human errors like door dings from neighboring cars, or dents from parking attendants. In fact, the only human working will be the cashier, who can also explain the system to other confused humans.
Although this technology has been in safe use for years overseas, let’s end off with a few risks you run with robotic garages according to the U.S.’ track record:
1. In Hoboken, NJ, one garage dropped an empty Cadillac Deville six floors down in 2004, and a Jeep four stories the next. 2. The same garage in NJ malfunctioned and froze for about 26 hours, trapping all the cars in the garage.
But not to worry, the rigs in “the Chinatown garage are outfitted with enough laser and radar sensors to make Fort Knox jealous,” said AP news.
Read it here.
Connie Kargbo @ Fri, 02/09/2007 - 7:14pm
I've seen these "special" garages as I walk around NYC. I always wondered how they stacked up three or more cars. Another thought I also had was whether or not these cars fall. Well apparently they do. I think these garages are inventive and functional, especially for crowded NYC. All the buildings go up, so why not cars?