Parking Vault, Ltd. A Presentation by John Mauro

Next, John Mauro came to our class with a new idea (new to us, at least) in parking.  Parking Vault is an automated parking concept fairly new to the U.S.

Inside the Parking Vault, after the customer locks and exits the vehicle, they will access a vending machine to pay for parking with a credit or debit card.  Then a machine dubbed "The Mule" will extend a flat assembly under the vehicle and extends rollers that lift the vehicle by the tires off the ground 1/16th of an inch and then slides the vehicle to the interior of the parking vault.  It then moves left, right up or down to move the vehicle to an empty parking spot.  When the customer return to pick up the vehicle, the mule retrieves the vehicle and returns it to the vending bay front side out, so the customer can drive forward out of the parking facility.

This is an example of sustainability, because the footprint of a Parking Vault compared to tradition flat parking is significantly smaller.  Compared to a traditional parking garage, the space needed for a parking vault is only about 60%.

Foot print o Parking Vault compared to traditional parking

One mule can move about 2 vehicles per minute, so a typical parking vault with more 2 mules can move about 4 cars per minute.  It can be scaled to handle large parking needs by putting two parking vaults side by side, and as long as necessary.  The larger projects can remain efficient by adding as many mules as needed.

While I couldn't find a video specific to Parking Vault, I'm posting a link to a video of Volkswagen's car park facility in Germany:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JguJpX7bS6k