auto-park valet, Vehicle Damage?
 

Just wondering if anyone has ever used the auto-park garages??

The Link is here if you don't know what I'm talking about:

:-Welcome to Park Plus Inc-:

State-of-the Art parking garage in Towson


It looks like it grabs the car by the wheels within the platform. Wonder if it damages the car at all...or if there is a chance of damaging it?

I think the system that grabs the wheels looks like it should not cause any damage. The only issue I could see would be clearance on the undercarriage with the automated parking assembly on low cars.

That thing is probably covered in sensors monitoring every conceivable angle, at least I hope it is. So hopefully if the car was to low, or to tall, or wide, or whatever, it would warn you and/ or just not do anything.

As far as damage to the car is concerned the parts in question just press against the insides of the tires, they probably never even touch the wheels themselves but either way at least it's on the inside so it's somewhat unimportant.

My real concern would be later on down the road when everything is dirty, neglected, and they start slacking on maintenance. I'm not sure what would happen if (when?) the machine breaks, but of course that would depend on what breaks and how severely of course.
But that thing is probably severely overbuilt and I would expect pretty durable. It would be a huge liability if it were to break, but for that same reason I expect you'll be seeing those garages out of order regularly.

Well that's the concern. Also if it does "grab" by the wheels (which it looks like it does from the video)...What about the low-profile tires with 20" rims? Damage risk? I think so :confused:

There is certainly a risk but it would be low on my list of concerns unless you had some sort of plating that could be chipped. That would eventually show up but if your wheels were that delicate they wouldn't last long on the street anyway

Looks great...until they breakdown, or breaks your car. I wouldn't take my Z. Find a better place to live. :D

The Towson one is not far from me.

I don't like the looks of it. I don't trust human valets, and I don't take my car to automatic car washes... 2+2=4

Why can't people just build a normal garage :tup:

It looks like it would knock the alignment off on your car!!!

What a great idea! I don't see any more risk in using this automated system than the risks involved using a conventional underground garage parking the vehicle yourself. The chances of getting your door dinged are eliminated and that's a plus.

That is 100% right. Once the car is in your bay its stored away until you want it.

I guess no one here has ever tried a system like this.

Yeah I was going to say I would avoid these things, if there were any around. But as I started typing that, I started thinking about the people working in parking garages... or just wondering around in them

I would say the risks are probably pretty much on par with each other

you don't have to worry about people dinging your car with their doors
and it looks like it's more secure then a regular garage, no way you car can be stolen