First came autonomous vehicles. Now on the horizon are robots designed to park your car in a tightly packed garage — and return it when you want to leave.
For residents of two luxury residential towers under construction in New York City, robot parking is being offered as a feature. The two properties, both under development by Legion Investment Group, are set to be equipped with robotic parking systems made by Denver-based Volley Automation.
The robots work this way: A real human driver pulls into a stall and onto a metal tray embedded in the floor and the driver exits the car. A camera scans the vehicle's license plate to keep track of who owns which vehicles.
The robot then lifts the metal tray and proceeds to move the vehicle into the parking area. Software uses artificial intelligence to select the best space to park each vehicle. The driver uses a mobile phone app to place an order to retrieve their vehicle. When a resident leaves the building, the robot fetches the car and brings it to the driver.
The process is quick. Volley Automation says its retrieval time typically averages two minutes or less. According to Utron, a Hackensack, New Jersey-based maker of robotic parking systems, it typically takes between 30 and 90 seconds to retrieve a vehicle after placing an order on a mobile phone app.
Volley Automation's robots don’t look like humans. Instead, they are flat boxes about the length and width of a vehicle that move around a floor on wheels. The vehicle owner drives on top of a metal tray that sits atop the robot.
The space-age experience is convenient and enjoyable for the motorist, said Volley Automation CEO Sam Richardson. But the buildings’ developer will derive the most benefit, he said. By squeezing parking into a smaller area, it boosts the square footage that can be devoted to rent-generating living space.
“Our system is for the developer that can’t make a deal pencil,” Richardson told CoStar News. “They want to build a building, but they can’t finance it.”
Utron, a Volley Automation competitor, makes software to run multiple systems, including robotics and a "rack-and-rail" system where a metal platform lifts vehicles vertically and moves them into parking spaces on either side of the platform lift.
Limited space
Developers in densely populated areas like Manhattan often find it difficult and expensive to include a parking garage or deck because of limited space. Volley Automation’s robots make more efficient use of space, which in turn reduces a developer’s expenses.
Other companies such as Hyundai, Lödige, ParkPlus and Westfalia Technologies also provide robotic parking systems. Some developments that have installed robotic parking garages include Eve Park in London, Ontario, and One Post Office Square in Boston.
Developer Phillip Zhao hired Westfalia Technologies to design the parking garage for a student-housing project in Philadelphia. Because the city's zoning caps multifamily developments at one parking space for every three units, Zhao initially estimated the project could only have 33 residential units due to space limitations in the garage area. But Westfalia Technologies robotics increased the number of parking spaces in the garage from 11 units to 30 units, which in turn allowed Zhao to develop 90 residential units.
Parking technology companies offer systems with varying degrees of automation. Klaus Multiparking of Germany manufactures a product line called Parkboard that uses automated pallets to shift cars around like a puzzle board to make parking space for incoming vehicles.
The Klaus Multiparking system is not fully automated and requires the driver to get out of the vehicle, press a button to activate the pallets and drive the vehicle into a parking space. Klaus Multiparking also makes fully robotic parking systems under the Mastervario product line.
Robotic parking systems made by Volley Automation, Klaus Multiparking and others allow for parking decks to be included in a smaller area because the robots do not require driving lanes, payment gates and room for human drivers to turn around or back into a space.
Volley Automation software allows for hundreds of vehicles to be parked, provided there is adequate physical space in the garage, Richardson said. And that means more architectural freedom for designers since parking doesn't have to dictate the shape of a building's core or podium, according to a statement from Volley Automation.
"Instead of treating parking as a necessary evil," developers can use robotic systems as a "design opportunity and amenity," Nick Broz, chief sales officer of Volley Automation, said in the statement.
Volley Automation partners with other companies for the hardware, such as Hito Robotics for the robots themselves and Otis Worldwide for vertical lift systems. Volley Automation has installed its system at one property in the U.S., a parking garage at 1355 Fulton St. in San Francisco.
The two projects in Manhattan receiving Volley Automation’s robotic parking system are 38 Gramercy Park East, a 20-story, 57-unit condominium tower next to Gramercy Park; and 550 West 21st St., a 22-story building with 83 units along the Hudson River in Chelsea.
The parking robots are expected to be installed at 550 W. 21st St. in May 2027 and at 38 Gramercy Park East in December 2027. The 550 W. 21st St. project is expected to open in late 2027 or early 2028 and the Gramercy Park property in mid-to-late 2028. The properties' developer, Legion Investment Group, has not disclosed an estimated price range for the residential units.