One Man Electronic Garage Parks Cars By The Push Of A Button

July 1963…

One-man electronic garage parks cars by pushbutton.

Theater-goers in New York’s Times Square have something new to talk about: a garage that can park or unpark 27 cars in 10 minutes with only one attendant on duty. It’s all done by pushing a button and it works this way:

Drive up in your car onto a receiving platform, get out, and you’re handed a key. (It’s your receipt, keeps anyone else from handling the car.) The lone attendant then presses a button and automation goes to work. Before you’ve left the building, long fingers have reached under the car and transferred it to an elevator that deposits it in its designated pigeonhole.

Getting it back is just the reverse. The insertion of your key sends the elevator to your car’s stall to bring it down.

Speed-Park garage holds 270 cars. Two special Otis elevators handle the chores.