It's bad enough that a lot of people have their data trapped by proprietary software, these folks have their cars trapped by proprietary software:
In the course of a contract dispute, the city of Hoboken had police escort the Robotic employees from the premises just a few days before the contract between both parties was set to expire. What the city didn't understand or perhaps concern itself with, is that they sent the company packing with its manuals and the intellectual property rights to the software that made the giant robotic parking structure work.
The Hoboken garage is one of a handful of fully automated parking structures that make more efficient use of space by eliminating ramps and driving lanes, lifting and sliding automobiles into slots and shuffling them as needed. If the robot shuts down, there is no practical way to manually remove parked vehicles.
Can you imagine how annoying it would be to park your car for a concert or to go shopping downtown, and then find out that you can't get the car out of the garage? Yeesh.
One Comment
Hoboken New Jersey Police are great and are doing a great job with the city!