Giant Robot Imprisons Parked Cars

Here's a story to make you think twice about not paying attention to the software license agreements you're signing. In an automated parking garage in Hoboken, New Jersey, the city uses software from Robotic Parking to control the robot that automatically park cars. In automated parking garages, space is optimized by doing away with ramps and walk-space, but having a robot control the parking of vehicles. The software controls what vehicles enter and leave the facility. Unfortunately for Hoboken, in a dispute with the software company, they had police escort Robotic Parking employees off the premises. The staff left -- unfortunately, because Hoboken they were licensing the Robotic Parking software on a month-to-month basis, when the staff left and the license wasn't renewed, the parking garage simply stopped working -- with the public's vehicles still in there, unable to leave.