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Parking Attendant 2.0

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-wonder-what-an-suv-falling-six-stories-sounds-like dept.

theodp writes "Would you trust a robot to park your car? That's the question facing New Yorkers as the city's first robotic parking garage opens in Chinatown. With new software and enough laser and radar sensors to make Fort Knox jealous, it's believed that the new facility — which can squeeze 67 cars in space that would otherwise hold only 24 — will not suffer the kind of glitches that caused the nation's first robotic garage in nearby NJ to drop and trap cars."

10 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. The FIRST robotic garage in NJ... by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... did not trap cars due to technical malfunctions, but rather due to a contractual dispute.

    1. Re:The FIRST robotic garage in NJ... by massysett · · Score: 4, Informative

      In NJ, it was a battle over the software used to run the garage. It was proprietary software, which made it easy for the vendor to hold the city hostage. Remember this story?

      http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/ 08/1512211

      --
      Penny - plain text accounting
  2. Not Really New by Garrett+Fox · · Score: 5, Informative

    This isn't entirely a new idea. Tokyo already has space-efficient parking garages that stack cars using turntables and elevators. I think the images atop this link are fake, but the video appears real and this appears similar to what I saw from outside.

    --
    Revive the Constitution.
    1. Re:Not Really New by jrumney · · Score: 3, Informative

      I remember using one in Nagoya in 1989. They are not new technology at all.

    2. Re:Not Really New by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Informative

      The picture you think is fake is an actual "garage" at VW. It's not something where you park your car, but it's where new cars are stored awaiting the customers. (You had a hint in the text, plus all cars in the picture are clearly VWs) It's in "Autostad" near Wolfsburg.

      It saves a bit space and is a nice to show off ;-)

  3. someone set us up the car by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The one in NJ dropped cars? I remember it was shut down with cars inside by a contract dispute.

    I don't see the big novelty since there's been a variety of systems in Japan for a dog's age, but this is an American design, at least according to sharply-named Robotic Parking Systems's website. (Which I won't link to, since it has pretty much no actual content and is only missing the Monorail Song.)

    Do love this quote from the vendor in TFA: "What seems to have happened is that the developers have been wanting this for a long time, but the architects have been lagging behind. Architects use the same plans over and over, particularly when it comes to parking in a garage."

    Riiiiight. Gosh those architects just walk all over developers. More likely it's been uneconomical till now. I guess that was the vendor's way of deflecting attention from what will be hefty sticker shock.

  4. Self-Parking cars by advocate_one · · Score: 4, Informative

    too late... self-parking cars are already available... in Japan...

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  5. Very common in Japan by TorKlingberg · · Score: 3, Informative

    These automatic parking systems are everywhere in Japan. Especially in the craped city centers, but even many normal apartment buildings have them to cram in a parking spot for each apartment.

  6. Re:In my previous job we had one by Software · · Score: 2, Informative

    The robotic arm was not supposed to touch the roof. It was moving to pick up some other car and happened to hit the roof of the unfortunate vehicle.

  7. Re:Better now than later.. by ambrosen · · Score: 2, Informative
    Well, I oversimplified, and I'm no expert, but according to Wikipedia

    the USB specification requires that devices connect in a low-power mode (100 mA maximum) and state how much current they need, before switching, with the host's permission, into high-power mode.
    That sounds reasonable.