Spent the day yesterday in Dubai touring MRS installations with their local business development manager, Usama Al Kahaleh.
First we saw their running installation near a shopping mall on the outskirts of the city. Its a 600 car facility that on the inside looks reminiscent of Hoboken's Robotic Garage. That's probably because MRS is the local name for Robotic Parking, the company that installed the system in Hoboken.
This systems is running smoothly (I've actually seen it) and is a big hit. The problem they have is that the building it supports, like so many in Dubai, isn't finished. (The free standing garage is). So a lot of the traffic that would be going to the garage doesn't yet exist. However on weekends, its jumping. There is a mall across the street and a number of clubs so activity
picks up during these days.
We then visited a project that is under construction, the Emirates Financial Plaza in the middle of Dubai's cluster of highrises on the "strip" leading out to Abu Dhabi. Its a 1000 car facility that is finished but is now waiting for the building above it to be completed so the parking can be put into operation. They do something a bit different hat this site. You drive into what would appear to be a standard garage and then you can choose whether to park in the normal manner or use the automated garage. I was told that during peek traffic entrance times, this will alleviate the pressure on the 10 entry bays used in the Robotic system. The company also has a garage coming out the the ground here in Abu Dhabi.
Robotic's founder is Gerhart Haag, or as is known in these parts, Royce Monteverdi. If you want to read all about Royce and/or Gerhart check out his web
site here. His son is located here in the Emirates doing software support for the company here. The young man told me that the moving parts of the system are manufactured in Florida, tested there at their facility in Clearwater, and then shipped to job site for installation.
It seems that those who were dancing on Robotic's grave just a few years ago may have done that two step a tad too early.
JVH
A Note from a Friend
January 20, 2024
I received this from John Clancy. Now retired, John worked in the technology side of the industry for decades. I don’t think this needs any
2 Responses
I assume that parking in the “normal manner” has a lower cost compared to the robotic option?
I would guess not. The entry and exit lanes are the same for each “Type” of parking. The different “types” are more for convenience (when the robotic system is hammered on the entry side, the waiting traffic can be shunted off into the standard parking area.) JVH