Smart parking: MAG unveils first intelligent garage in Dubai

Published February 3rd, 2013 - 08:38 GMT via SyndiGate.info

The automated parking, which can be monitored by one person, is fully computerised and can even wash your car for you.

MAG Group, a UAE business conglomerate, is bringing smart parking to the Middle East.

It has built the largest smartparking facility in the world, a nine-storey steel structure, at the Emirates Financial Tower (EFT) in the DIFC at a cost of $22 million (Dh80.8 million). The garage, which has an overall capacity for 1191 vehicles, opened last month.

The automated parking, which can be monitored by one person, is fully computerised and can even wash your car for you.

“This is an achievement for Dubai, which has proven itself to be an incubator of innovation in businesses on the regional and global scale,” said Moafaq Al Gaddah, Chairman of MAG Group, who added that smart parking would be an ideal solution to the current transportation infrastructure and car park facility issues and will help Dubai cope with the increasing influx of vehicles on the road.

He said the technology for the structure was designed by MAG Robotic System (MRS), a sister company of MAG Group, and fabricated in the US. A second smart parking facility will be introduced in Abu Dhabi.

The garage has been awarded ‘Largest Automated Parking Facility in the World’ by the Guinness World Records.

Engineer Rabih Aghnatios, technical manager at MRS, said drivers need only to park in the transition bay and exit the vehicle. The garage has nine entry and exit lanes, where the system identifies the optimum storage space and then manoeuvres the vehicle, which is safely and securely parked.

“When the driver is ready to leave, the system calls the vehicle back to the transition bay and the driver is able to depart,” he said.

The system can also learn and will automatically shuffle the vehicle towards the exit a few minutes before the driver’s standard departure time.

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