page_title: Multistorey car park
section_title: Automated parking
hierarchical_section_title: Multistorey car park / Automated parking
caption_attribution_description: English: Automatic Underground Car Storage Thessaloniki, Greece Български: Автоматичен подземен автомобилен склад-гараж, Солун
context_page_description: A multistory car park or parking garage is a building designed for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place. It is essentially an indoor, stacked car park. Parking structures may be heated if they are enclosed.
  Design of parking structures can add considerable cost for planning new developments, and can be mandated by cities or states in new building parking requirements. Some cities such as London have abolished previously enacted minimum parking requirements.
context_section_description: The earliest use of an automated parking system (APS) was in Paris in 1905 at the Garage Rue de Ponthieu. The APS consisted of a groundbreaking multi-story concrete structure with an internal elevator to transport cars to upper levels where attendants parked the cars. 
  A 1931 Popular Mechanics article speculated about design for an underground garage where the car is taken to a parking area by a conveyor then an elevator to shuttles mounted on rails.
  The total cost of ownership of automated parking needs to be carefully considered.
  The actual cost of construction of automated car parks is typically higher than conventional car park structures, however, this can be offset by the higher space efficiency. The cost of the mechanical equipment needed to transport the cars needs to be added to the building cost. In addition, operation and maintenance costs of the mechanical equipment need to be added in order to determine the total cost of ownership. Other costs could be saved, for example, there is no need for an energy-intensive ventilating system, since cars are not driven inside and human cashiers or security personnel may not be needed. For naturally ventilated car parks structures, the ventilation equipment is not needed.
  Automated car parks rely on similar technology to that used for mechanical handling and document retrieval. The driver leaves the car in an entrance module, and it is then transported to a parking slot by a robotic trolley. For the driver, the process of parking is reduced to leaving the car inside an entrance module.
  At peak periods a wait may occur before entering or leaving, because loading passengers and luggage occurs at the entrance and exit rather than at the parking stall. This loading blocks the entrance or exit from being available to others. It is generally not recommended to use automated car parks for high peak hour volume facilities.
  Additional factors that need to be taken into consideration are:
  Fear of breakdowns (How does the user get the car back)
  Maintenance contracts needed with suppliers
caption: Automatic underground car storage in Thessaloniki, Greece
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