Slashdot Mirror

just for the pics

company's site

It's not a "company" video.... it is a story than CNN did on this garage in Hoboken done by Jeanie Moost.

http://www.robopark.com/video/cnn_bb.wmv

is the direct URL.

Salient facts from the video:
  - the car owner uses an access card to get in and a pin to retrieve the car
  - The garage holds 312 car on 7 levels
  - there are 14 movements possible at the same time
  - it shows the operator console (can't make out much detail from it)
  - No tipping required

The other thing that's clear is there are some folks here who have no idea what it costs to develop software and to do anything (like putting someone up in a hotel while on-site) in New York City and vicinity. The disputed license fee works out to less than $20/month per parking space. Typical parking rates in Hoboken's garages are $20-$40 per day.
http://www.hobokeni.com/park_lots.asp

Anticpating the... "But down here in Texas we can park on the street for free!... boy are those Yankees stupid".... Okay, but how is that relevant? It's a long commute daily from Texas to Manhattan.

This page http://www.robopark.com/productline.html on the Robotic website has the following text:

"The Robotic Parking Systems Patented Design: Enhanced, patented design whereby all three movements are separated and handled by individual intelligent components with true redundancy. No single failure will ever result in the garage becoming inoperable."

Except if your software licence is in dispute.

From http://www.robopark.com/productline.html

The Robotic Parking Systems Patented Design: Enhanced, patented design whereby all three movements are separated and handled by individual intelligent components with true redundancy. No single failure will ever result in the garage becoming inoperable.

except when we pull the plug There is absolutely no reason why the system would not allow the cars to come out, no new cars getting in, that's O.K.

Subject change; This company is based in Clearwater, FL. Anybody else get a sneaking suspicion that this has something to do with scientology?

short answer= NO

the company website is a robopark.com - Needless to say, the site is down intermittently since the mention in wired. Research on the site seems to imply that the company has german roots.

side note

Demographics for Clearwater

total population = 108,787

as seen here: About 6,850 Scientology followers have moved to the Clearwater area, joining the church's 1,400 uniformed employees.

See also this report on religios demographics is Pinellas County

Not everyone in Clearwater is a scientologist. Of course you are free to your opinion. But you seem to panic too easily.

Google is your friend.

You can watch their videos at:

http://www.robopark.com/

Heres another site with some animations showing how it works:
http://www.robopark.com/

Looking at the site you posted, it looks like the cars are stacked on top each other, with nothing in between (or if there is anything, you can't see it. I'd sure hate to have someone's clunker dripping oil onto my windshield.