Robot Parking Garage

[NYSmokey]

Valet is a robot

Chinatown lot goes high-tech to give parking a lift

BY BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

New Yorkers soon will have a high-tech alternative to the parking attendant who scratches your bumper or changes your radio settings - and you won't have to tip.
The city's first robotic parking garage is set to open next month in Chinatown.

"You'll never have to worry about anybody damaging the vehicle, anybody driving the car, anyone changing your seat settings, your radio settings or your mirrors," said Ari Milstein, the director of planning for Automotion Parking Systems.

The underground garage at 123 Baxter St., near Hester St., is being rigged with sensors, laser beams, turn tables and elevators that go up, down and sideways to park cars with efficiency and precision.

"It's completely automated, completely sterile," Milstein said. "All your personal belongings you can leave in your car, and they'll be right where you left them when you come back."

He said the technology will allow 67 cars to be squeezed into a two-floor basement, where human valets can fit only 24.

All the driver does is follow arrows to line the car up on a pallet and walk away with the keys. The robot does the rest, sliding the cars onto shelves and then retrieving them.

The only human will be an attendant to help people get used to the system and handle cash transactions. Fees will run from $25 a day to $400 a month.

"We didn't want a machine accepting cash because of some of those breakdown problems you would have when sticking a crumpled bill in them," Milstein. "We try to keep things as mechanically simple as possible."

Milstein said five additional Automotion Parking garages are being planned for the city, including three in Brooklyn.

The system is also catching on worldwide, with similar garages in China, Turkey, Australia, Germany and Hungary.

"It's like EZPass, it's like the ATM; it takes a little while for us to kind of get comfortable with," Milstein said.

But human parking attendants shouldn't give up just yet.

The only other computer-controlled parking garage in the United States is still working out the bugs.

The Robotic Parking Systems garage in Hoboken, unrelated to Automotion Parking Systems, dropped a Cadillac DeVille six floors in 2004 and a Jeep four stories the following year.

Originally published on January 30, 2007

I would guess that this could create some challenges for responding units. A simple car fire could turn into a real mess.

[nyckftbl]

Valet is a robot

Chinatown lot goes high-tech to give parking a lift

BY BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

New Yorkers soon will have a high-tech alternative to the parking attendant who scratches your bumper or changes your radio settings - and you won't have to tip.
The city's first robotic parking garage is set to open next month in Chinatown.

"You'll never have to worry about anybody damaging the vehicle, anybody driving the car, anyone changing your seat settings, your radio settings or your mirrors," said Ari Milstein, the director of planning for Automotion Parking Systems.

The underground garage at 123 Baxter St., near Hester St., is being rigged with sensors, laser beams, turn tables and elevators that go up, down and sideways to park cars with efficiency and precision.

"It's completely automated, completely sterile," Milstein said. "All your personal belongings you can leave in your car, and they'll be right where you left them when you come back."

He said the technology will allow 67 cars to be squeezed into a two-floor basement, where human valets can fit only 24.

All the driver does is follow arrows to line the car up on a pallet and walk away with the keys. The robot does the rest, sliding the cars onto shelves and then retrieving them.

The only human will be an attendant to help people get used to the system and handle cash transactions. Fees will run from $25 a day to $400 a month.

"We didn't want a machine accepting cash because of some of those breakdown problems you would have when sticking a crumpled bill in them," Milstein. "We try to keep things as mechanically simple as possible."

Milstein said five additional Automotion Parking garages are being planned for the city, including three in Brooklyn.

The system is also catching on worldwide, with similar garages in China, Turkey, Australia, Germany and Hungary.

"It's like EZPass, it's like the ATM; it takes a little while for us to kind of get comfortable with," Milstein said.

But human parking attendants shouldn't give up just yet.

The only other computer-controlled parking garage in the United States is still working out the bugs.

The Robotic Parking Systems garage in Hoboken, unrelated to Automotion Parking Systems, dropped a Cadillac DeVille six floors in 2004 and a Jeep four stories the following year.

Originally published on January 30, 2007

I would guess that this could create some challenges for responding units. A simple car fire could turn into a real mess.


All I think of when i read this is: (please read in a nasaly annoying voice)
"I'd love to give cops and firemen raises. But we just dont have the money"

UGHHHHH

I cant wait for all city owned parking garages to start installing these things.

[jmitchell]

That is a good point. Squeezing 67 vehicles where they would normally fit 24 would cause an extreme exposure problem. I wonder if they are parked side to side-bumper to bumper, or if there is some access to each vehicle. Would be interesting to see pictures of the layout.

[NYSmokey]

Maybe the robot will automatically eject the offending automobile into the street :rolleyes:

[MalahatTwo7]

I suspect it will look something like the boat storage racks that they use in the marinas and boat vendor lots.

[jmitchell]

lol

We could always use more 2-ton flaming projectiles in the big city.

[Nine3Probie]

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070129/capt.nykw10401291848.robotic_g arage_nykw104.jpg?x=380&y=250&sig=5rWQq7RpeQGEepkGaFq5og--

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070129/capt.nykw10101291848.robotic_g arage_nykw101.jpg?x=380&y=251&sig=aAoKgZfsrc1vnK99UOW2fA--

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070129/capt.nykw10301291847.robotic_g arage_nykw103.jpg?x=380&y=283&sig=BLxFTKwUJZMg9.oeArNAdw--

Can't get the images to post...yet. These are from an article on Yahoo.com

[NYSmokey]

Thanks for the photos. At first I thought they were parking in an art museum. Looks like only high end cars. Geo Metros are not welcome! :D My apologies to Metro owners :p

[nyckftbl]

Maybe the robot will automatically eject the offending automobile into the street :rolleyes:


That would be cool. :eek: Good thing I dont work in Manhattan.

[Nine3Probie]

That would be cool. :eek: Good thing I dont work in Manhattan.

Coming soon to a borough near you! :D

Milstein said five additional Automotion Parking garages are being planned for the city, including three in Brooklyn.

[Tanker06]

Interesting.... well, that'll last until the first one lights off, and the cars start
popping like July 4th firecrackers.

Then you'll see the biggest yard-sale of car-stacking equipment that'd make
any trailer-park envious! :D

[jmitchell]

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070129/capt.nykw10401291848.robotic_g arage_nykw104.jpg?x=380&y=250&sig=5rWQq7RpeQGEepkGaFq5og--

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070129/capt.nykw10101291848.robotic_g arage_nykw101.jpg?x=380&y=251&sig=aAoKgZfsrc1vnK99UOW2fA--

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070129/capt.nykw10301291847.robotic_g arage_nykw103.jpg?x=380&y=283&sig=BLxFTKwUJZMg9.oeArNAdw--

Can't get the images to post...yet. These are from an article on Yahoo.com

Thanks for the pics.

If they will all be stored in seperate "rooms", which are connected to the building like the one pictured, then you now have a case of a structure fire versus that of a vehicle fire.

This just looks like a bad idea all together. I wonder how difficult they are to access? I would hope the city would add to their list of codes to provide a stand pipe connection in each compartment, or room, or whatever.

[NYSmokey]

May.....I.....Park.....Your... ...Car? :)

[MalahatTwo7]

Well, according to the report, several of our European Brethern have experience with these as working garages. Any thoughts/comments from across the Pond?

[Mihlrad]

so... if car are practically stacked on top of one another.... if one car happens to catch on fire on say the very bottom level, fire rises, gastanks are barely protected underneath a car, eventually the fire climbs.... bang? and it keeps climbing, eventually the fire causes the beams holding the elevator system to weaken. The elevator falls apart, all the flaming cars come crashing to the ground.... now they are piled up, on fire on top of the cars that are still fine... chain reaction on 67 cars, good game?

[cozmosis]

What sort of sprinkler laws are on the books in NYC? A car fire is no big deal if the complex is properly sprinkled.

[feedtheflame]

I say you combine the fire suppression system from Ellsworth Air Force Base http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=10491 with the concept of the parking garage robot and you've got yourself a fool proof product. Almost.

[CaptainGonzo]

Imagine having to do the NFIRS report for each vehicle that was an exposure! :eek: :D

[mcaldwell]

That one is tiny.

Check out the German Version at the Autostadt in Munich::eek:

http://z.about.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/B/F/garage2_sm.jpg

[CaptainGonzo]

That one is tiny.

Check out the German Version at the Autostadt in Munich::eek:

http://z.about.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/B/F/garage2_sm.jpg


Gott im Himmel! die ist eine Menge Autos!

[JHR1985]

First off... you gotta love Captain Ron....

Secondly.... in regards to that picture.... HOLY CRAP

[Moediaz]

$400 a month...in Manhattan..."speechless"...That's a Bargain !

[MalahatTwo7]

I guess they dont have Robo-Parker in Memphis :D

SUV Plunges Off Parking Garage's 5th Floor
Condition Of Driver Not Immediately Known

POSTED: 5:29 pm EST January 31, 2007
UPDATED: 5:47 pm EST January 31, 2007

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- An SUV drove off the fifth floor of a parking garage at the University of Memphis on Wednesday.

The driver --- a woman --- was taken to the Regional Medical Center in undetermined condition.

Witnesses said the vehicle hit nose-first, scattering concrete that was knocked off the garage.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

The woman was apparently the only person in the vehicle.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.

I hope the driver is doing ok though.

[CaptainGonzo]

$400 a month...in Manhattan..."speechless"...That's a Bargain !


On Beacon Hill in Boston, parkings spaces are sold like regular real estate.. some of them for up to $300K! :eek:

[doughesson]

lol

We could always use more 2-ton flaming projectiles in the big city.


How much for a license to set up grandstands and charge people to watch?