Robotic Parking Garage shuts down, traps hundreds of cars

[jamz]

Filed under: Gadgets, Etc.


The Garden Street Garage in Hoboken, NJ is one of them new-fangled parking garages that eschews the inefficiencies of gates and ramps in favor of a robotic store-and-retrieval system. These facilities are wonders to behold in person and usually loved by their patrons, except when someone turns it off with their cars trapped inside.

Last week it happened at the Garden Street Garage when the city of Hoboken entered into a dispute with Robotic Parking, the owners of the software that run the garage. The city of Hoboken had police escort Robotic Parking employees from the garage a few days before the contract between the two parties was going to expire. Unfortunately, Hoboken didn't realize that its software license ran out after its contract with Robotic Parking expired and that the garage would, subsequently, just stop working.

Both sides went to court where it was settled that Hoboken would pay $5,500 for a new three-year software license, and the victimized patrons finally got their vehicles back.

[Source: Wired]

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