Articles: Her Say! Robo-Lot – 57

Hi honey, I’ll be right there. I’m just stacking the car”. It’s the future of car parking, and though it seems odd to us, robotic parking is conquering the world faster than Tom Cruise and scientology. This February New York’s first robotic lot opened in Chinatown. If you are imagining robot valets resembling C3PO anxiously waiting for their next vehicle to park, that isn’t quite the case. A metal foot will not be coming anywhere near your accelerator – because the automated garage itself does the parking. And it’s a fandangle affair all right. Comprising laser beams, turn tables, sensors and elevators, it hoists, twists, shimmies and stacks your car like a waffle. All you have to do is drive onto a pallet and get out. The ‘bot then does its thing, and where once 24 cars could fit, 67 will now be squeezed.

Parking rates are competitive (for steep New York prices, that is). The Associated Press reports that New Yorkers will be looking at around US$25 per day (about NZ$37.50), or US$400 monthly. It’s probably worth it, because you won’t have to hunt for a park when you’re running late, have to worry about strange men lurking in the dim light, or need to do a five point turn to get out of a tricky spot.

Given that cars can be shelved two to three deep, when it comes to collecting your vehicle, the machine simply cranks into retrieval mode and shuffles cars around until it finds yours. It then turns your car on the turntable so it arrives facing the right way. I love it!

But not everyone is pumped and ready to hand over their keys. There was that wee incident in New Jersey in 2004 when a Cadillac catapulted down six floors after being dropped by a ‘bot system. And then a software glitch locked everyone’s cars inside the building for 26 hours… Then in 2005 a Jeep flew four floors to its death in the same building.

Disregarding these additions to the car cemetery, the longevity of automated parking does look promising, simply because there is a need. We live in what is becoming an overpopulated world, with serious urban space constrictions and the associated parking challenges. Automated parking is not just relevant to huge parking lots, either; the technology can also be applied to luxury apartment parking and office car parks.

Here at Tone we’ve just moved buildings and we have more than enough room to swing a cat. But at the rate we are expanding, stacking our cars in the future could well be in order.

Is NZ ready for robotic parking?

• We’re not as strapped for space as other countries but there is a growing need. Tried finding a car park in the Auckland CBD around noon?

• We’re being eased into parking technology by using those fancy parking meters that accept parking charges by text messaging.

• Auckland’s Orams Marine dry stacks boats (albeit using a fork lift), but still, it’s the stacking concept and if our runabouts can be shelved then why not our cars?

• The US, China, Dubai, Germany and Hungary all have the technology. We are bound to go along for the ride at some point.