Pay your software bill or the Giant Robot will keep your car!

It's more like a tape jockey robot than Robby the Robot, but Robotic Parking got into a dispute with the Garden Street Garage in Hoboken, NJ and decided to SUSPEND operations -- with cars still in the garage.

The garage is one of those automated places that stacks cars up on shelves in order to get the most out of their very limited space. It would seem that it has been plagued by difficultiues both mechanical and personal since it opened. It all came to a head when the city decided not to pay to keep the software license current. The programmers got their revenge as the software "timed out" and refused to park or more importantly unpark the stacked vehicles.

It's all settled now, but for a few days, a few cars where in a mechanical hell, tormeted by an autobot in torpor.

qv: Hudson Reporter

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About Phil Yanov

Phil Yanov is a Technologist, Columnist and Public Radio Commentator.

He is the founder of Tech After Five as well as the founder and President of the GSA Technology Council and the IT Leadership Council.

His personal technology column appears in Greenville Business Magazine and the Columbia Business Journal.

He co-hosts the Your Day technology shows heard on NPR radio stations across South Carolina and is a frequent contributor to technology stories appearing on radio and television.