All Cars, All the Time

Hoboken Hold ‘Em: How a Robot Imprisoned Cars


Picture this garage of the future: no ramps, no driving lanes just a robotic elevator system that stacks 312 cars where a regular style garage could only hold 90. When it is all working it’s a great system, it even learns when owners return to pick up their vehicles and shuffles around cars to optimize pickup times. So, what went wrong, you ask? A mechanical failure wasn’t to blame, but rather a software licensing issue.

The garage owner, the City of Hoboken, New Jersey, got into a contract dispute with the vendor of the system Robotic Parking. It seems that a few days after police escort the Robotic employees from the premises and installed Israeli based Unitronics as the operator, the codes that operate the system ceased to work. When the City sent the Robotic out the door it also sent away the manuals and the intellectual property rights to the software that made the whole structure work. Oops. Finger pointing and a court battle ensued. The City accused the operator of changing the codes, Robotics general manager countered that it was a ridiculous charge and joked that all he done was “Prayed on the beach this morning and (the codes) all changed.” During all of this owners of the trapped vehicles could do nothing.

Order was restored once the City hammered out an agreement with Robotic where the City would pay $5,500 a month for a three-year software license.

For those of you thinking, haven’t I heard about robotic car storage recently? Yes you have, the VW facility in Wolfsburg, Germany generating a lot of blog coverage.

wired article here. thanks to joe for the tip