This Smart Parking Lot Is A Ferris Wheel For Cars

Automated parking systems have been existence for decades with complicated systems taking months to build. This Japanese engineered smart parking lot built in Saudi Arabia was built in just five days. In the amount of space that two cars normally could’ve parked, now there is space for up to 16 cars.

Operation couldn’t be simpler. Users park their car in the first slot underneath and exit the car and grab a ticket.

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When it’s time to retrieve your car, you swipe your pass, pay your fee and your car is lowered to you for retrieval.

The device itself draws inspiration from a technology that is more than 100 years old called the Pater Noster. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because it draws its name from the latin phrase for “Our Father” because the device resembles rosary beads.

Here’s an example of one of the few remaining Pater Noster lifts in operation in Stuggart, Germany.

This Pater Noster type of system moves people up and down rather than cars.

And with your car literally in the middle of the air, it’s not like auto thieves can get to it.

Automated Parking Systems like this probably could see some use in places around the United States, but with plenty of space available and with the relative low maintenance of parking garages, it doesn’t look like Americans will implement this technology anytime soon.