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The Mystery of the Cars Abandoned in a Robot Car Park (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the mystery-solved dept.

The mystery of why a handful of cars were abandoned in a derelict car park in Edinburgh, Capital of Scotland, may have been solved. From a report on BBC: The $7m Autosafe SkyPark used robots to stack cars and was dubbed the "car park of the future" -- but went into receivership in 2003. After lying empty for more than a decade, the building in Morrison Street is now being demolished. And the work has uncovered eight cars which were left behind when the doors were closed. Images of the abandoned vehicles has sparked a number of theories about why they were never removed. But a former employee has said they could be old vehicles which were bought by the car park's former operators to test out the robot equipment. A spokesperson said: "We can confirm that there are eight cars present at the car park on the Capital Square site, which have been there since the car park closed in 2003. The owners of the cars are unknown and they are now the property of the demolition company who will remove the cars once work begins on the levels on which they are located."

13 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Why are the owners of the cars unknown? by Dahan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do they not have title records for cars in the UK? It seems like it'd be a trivial exercise to look up the license plate or the VIN to determine the owner of those cars.

    1. Re:Why are the owners of the cars unknown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bah, where's your sense of mystery and intrigue? The news media have a popular mandate to entertain us now, not merely to inform us.

    2. Re:Why are the owners of the cars unknown? by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      Cars in the UK don't have titles.

      But cars must be registered (with the DVLA).

      The difference is that there is no document that proves ownership of a car in the UK.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    3. Re:Why are the owners of the cars unknown? by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      A little more info here:
      https://www.askthe.police.uk/c...
      https://www.gov.uk/request-inf...
      Note: "registered keeper", not owner.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    4. Re:Why are the owners of the cars unknown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The vehicle registration document tracks the registered keeper of the car, who is the person legally responsible for the vehicle, so the owner is not really that relevant. The registered keeper is legally responsible for any incidents or offences involving the car and so on and so forth. The only time ownership becomes relevant is when selling the vehicle, in which case you generally need to produce proof of purchase of the car, although I have sold a car with just a vehicle registration document (it was a very low value car however).

    5. Re:Why are the owners of the cars unknown? by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

      If someone steals your bag of bagels, how do you establish ownership?

      If someone makes an analogy that in no way applies to the situation at hand, how do you respond?

      Ask for it in a car analogy. You must be new here.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  2. /. is going downhill. by Doctor+Morbius · · Score: 2

    How is this story relevant to tech? Who cares about a bunch of cars left behind at an abandoned junk yard?

    --
    If I disagree with you it's because you are wrong.
    1. Re:/. is going downhill. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Um, it is a robot car park that uses AI to stack cars. How is it not relevant to tech???

      Because the technology is not being discussed. I would be very interested in the tech, and even more interested in why it failed. But who owned 8 abandoned car? Who cares?

      I have seen automatic parking in Japan, and it seems to work well there. Maybe the difference is in the demand for parking. Japan has very little "street parking", since they believe streets are for driving, not parking. Before you can buy a car in Japan, you have to provide proof that you own or are leasing a parking space. Also, Edinburgh is way less dense than Tokyo.

  3. Somewhere in Edinburgh, a drunk is waking up by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    And, after a 10-year bender, he's asking himself "Now, where did I park my car?"

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Somewhere in Edinburgh, a drunk is waking up by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

      I don't understand what that has to do with this story?

      It's funny because 10 years ago we didn't have Lyft and Uber.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  4. Re:Exaplains the bankruptcy by bobbied · · Score: 2

    I'm guessing that had they needed any of those 8 spaces, they would quickly have removed the test cars.

    It seems likely that this business failed because not enough people parked their cars there at a profitable price point, not that they lacked sufficient capacity because 8 spaces where unavailable...

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  5. Dear Slashdot by in10se · · Score: 4, Funny

    There are also abandoned cars in my neighborhood. Slashdot, please help me solve this non-tech mystery on a supposedly tech-related site.

    --
    Popisms.com - Connecting pop culture
  6. Re:"car park" by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    I can't believe there are so many responses of British people offended that someone didn't know their terminology. ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.