Garage With Automated Valet Parking Opens In Astoria

ASTORIA, QUEENS — A new parking garage in Astoria is providing valet without a valet.

The first AI-driven parking garage in Queens opened this week at the recently-built luxury condominium The Rowan at 21-21 31st St., having a machine do all the work of parking once drivers enter the building.

The parking system uses artificial intelligence technology to park and retrieve vehicles. Drivers take their vehicles into the parking bay, and then their cars are scanned and measured to determine their size and shape.

The vehicle is then transferred on a pallet to a designated parking space through an automated lift.

To get the car back, the driver uses an app or an electronic ticket system to request the vehicle. The AI system, developed by the company U-Tron, then returns the vehicle to one of two parking bays.

The building was able to include 50% percent more spaces compared to a traditional parking facility, according to the Queens-based developer RockFarmer Properties.

Drivers can see how the automated parking system works here.