New York Needs Robotic Parking Garages

Check out this article in Slate. I think some rich entrepreneur would make serious money over the long haul by bringing a couple of these to New York City. He'll have a customer in me.

Over the years, I've parked in two garages in the city. Both are terrible at doing two simple things: Getting the car out when I need it and keeping the car in nice shape.

Speaking of keeping the car in nice shape, the attendents at the garage I'm currently in (East End Garage Corp) have many strikes against them. They seriously screwed up my 1985 Porsche by banging it into a support pole. (The garage is underground.) When I confronted them about the huge dent in my front fender, they claimed they didn't cause the damage. I had to point out the black paint from my car on their support pole and the white paint from their support pole on my car before they admitted responsibility. On top of that, it took them well over a month to fix the damage to my car. I had it fixed and then gave the car back to my father, who had sold it to me a year prior.

The East End Garage folk are doing no better with my 2002 Corvette. I've noticed scuffs and scratches all over the car. Most recently, they caused two giant scuffs on the front of the car, which look like they've been caused by the ass-end of an SUV backing over the front of the car. I've pointed this out to the garage manager, who seems to want to keep his distance from me lately.

Bring on the robots.