Autoblog

Robotic parking garages haven't caught on in the U.S. like they have in other developed countries. Perhaps that's because we're not as strapped for open space as other nations, or maybe its because the only robotic parking garage in the U.S. has dropped both a Cadillac Deville and a Jeep several stories and trapped its patrons vehicles inside for 26 hours because of a software glitch. We reported on that robotic garage back in August when a legal dispute between the city of Hoboken, NJ and Robotic Parking Systems, Inc. trapped even more cars inside.

In the Big Apple, however, space for parking is at such a premium that they're willing to risk the aforementioned pit falls to give this robotic storage-and-retrieval thing the old college try. A new robotic garage will open in Chinatown in early February that, unlike the Hoboken facility, stores its cars underground beneath an apartment building. Built by Automotion Parking Systems (click link to watch a demo), the Chinatown facility will be able to fit 67 vehicles where a traditional garage could only fit 24. Patrons can pay $25/day to park or $400/month, which the AP report tells us is competitive for NYC parking. Automotion claims there's a virtual impossibility of any snafus occuring similar to the ones that plagued the parking patrons of Hoboken, though time will certainly tell on this one.

As always, we here at Autoblog would like to extend our warmest greetings to our new robotic overlords, and just say that we look forward to becoming their sole source of power after we scorch the sky.

[Source: Associated Press]

The Garden Street Garage in Hoboken, NJ is one of them new-fangled parking garages that eschews the inefficiencies of gates and ramps in favor of a robotic store-and-retrieval system. These facilities are wonders to behold in person and usually loved by their patrons, except when someone turns it off with their cars trapped inside.

Last week it happened at the Garden Street Garage when the city of Hoboken entered into a dispute with Robotic Parking, the owners of the software that run the garage. The city of Hoboken had police escort Robotic Parking employees from the garage a few days before the contract between the two parties was going to expire. Unfortunately, Hoboken didn't realize that its software license ran out after its contract with Robotic Parking expired and that the garage would, subsequently, just stop working.

Both sides went to court where it was settled that Hoboken would pay $5,500 for a new three-year software license, and the victimized patrons finally got their vehicles back.

[Source: Wired]