Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 3:24 pm:

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Robot parking garage to open in New York
By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer
Jan 30, 2007

NEW YORK - Would you trust a robot to park your car? The question will confront New Yorkers in February as the city's first robotic parking opens in Chinatown. The technology has had a good track record overseas, but the only other public robotic garage in the United States has been troublesome, dropping vehicles and trapping cars because of technical glitches.

Nonetheless, the developers of the Chinatown garage are confident with the technology and are counting on it to squeeze 67 cars in an apartment-building basement that would otherwise fit only 24, accomplished by removing a ramp and maneuver space normally required.

...

Another company had built the only other public robotic garage in the United States, the one with a checkered past.

Built in 2002 across the river in Hoboken, N.J., with 314 spaces for monthly rentals only, the garage dropped an unoccupied Cadillac Deville six floors in 2004 and a Jeep four stories the following year. Early last year, a malfunction that went unrepaired for 26 hours trapped cars inside. ...

Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 4:36 pm:

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In the meantime, many of the garage's customers simply couldn't get their cars out.