Automated Car Parking..... when is this coming to India?..
Automatic multi-storey car parks provide lower building cost per parking slot than conventional car parks as they require less building volume and less ground area.
However, the disadvantage is the cost of the mechanical equipment within the building that is needed to transport cars to the parking spaces. Other costs are usually lower too, for example there is no need for an energy intensive ventilating system, since cars are not driven inside and human cashiers or security personnel may not be needed.
Automated car parks work as follows. The driver leaves the car in an entrance module. It is then transported to a parking slot by a robot trolley. For the driver, the process of parking is reduced to leaving the car inside an entrance module and walking away.
One disadvantage may be at peak periods when a wait may be involved before entering or leaving. The wait is caused by loading passengers and luggage at the entrance and exit locations of the car park rather than at the parked stall. This loading blocks the entrance or exit from being available to others. However the retrieval of vehicles can be faster in an automatic car park depending on the layout and number of exits.
*These images used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.
**This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Multi-storey car park.
