Who Invented Car Parking Systems?

Are you thinking who invented the car parking system? The most challenging and dreadful task for the drivers is parking the car. The number of cars in the major cities is increasing rapidly. This has led to congested spaces for parking. The search for parking space is so hard that sometimes, people park their car on the road.

There was a need for a better parking system. To overcome the problem of lack of parking space, car parking systems was developed. Most of the people think that automated car parking systems are an invention of the modern world. This is just a big misconception, the first car parking system was the Garage Rue de Ponthieu and was built in 1905. In this article, we have shed light on the history of the car parking systems.

Read on to know who invented the car Parking System.

The Invention of the Car Parking System

The first car parking system featured a lift in the middle of the system. The lift was responsible for moving the cars to the upper floor. The car parking attendants would park the cars. This was a semi-automated system, but it contained many aspects that are now used in the new car parking systems.

In 1900, there was a mass production of cars in the US, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Norway, and France. At that time, cars were considered as an environmentally-friendly instead of the other mode of transport, horses.

It was in 1920 when a Ferris wheel type of car parking system was made. It was known as Paternoster system, soon it gained popularity because it could park 8 cars. This system was widely used as it could be placed inside the buildings.

During this time, Kent Automatic Garages was placing parking systems that could park more than 1000 cars. In 1951, the first driverless parking garage was opened. Soon it was replaced with office space because of the increased value of the land. After this, the interest in the parking systems weakened. In 2002, the first robotic parking garage was opened in New Jersey.

In the 1970s, in Asia, Central America, and Europe more advanced parking systems than the US were being installed. By the year 1990s, in Japan, almost 40,000 spaces for parking was installed using the Paternoster system. According to a survey in 2012, there were 1.6 million automated parking spaces in Japan.

In recent times, there are many multi-story parking garages and parking lots. The biggest automated parking system is in Europe in Denmark. This system is capable of parking 1000 cars through 20 car lifts.

Who Invented Car Parking Sensors?

The parking sensors were developed in the 1970s in Germany. The inventor, Rainer Buchmann was responsible for this wonderful invention. Later in 1984, a patent request for ultrasonic parking sensors was filed in Italy by Ruggero and Ciccarello Lenci. It was in 1988 when the Ministry of Industry granted them permission for this invention.

Hence, car parking systems have been around as long as cars have been. In today’s world, the automatic car parking systems are been widely used.