Luxury condominium developers in New York are including

Luxury condominium developers in New York are including automatic parking garages in their projects. The driver leaves a car in a delivery bay, and a computerized system carries the vehicle to a parking spot in a structure that — thanks to the greatly reduced need for ramps, aisles, and head room — requires much less space per car than a conventional garage. One of the first automatic garages in the New York area, designed by Robotic Parking Systems, opened in October 2002 in Hoboken, New Jersey (see June 2004 New Urban News). The Hoboken garage took too long to retrieve cars and “even dropped a few,” according to drivers, The New York Times reported Dec. 6. A spokesman for Robotic said the problems have been remedied.