Robovault Protects Your Valuables from Thieves, Hurricanes, Apocalypse

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed)
Dec 15th 2009 at 2:02PM

South Florida's concentration of wealth and climate-on-steroids weather patterns makes it good practice for both Revelations and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Ft. Lauderdale's RoboVault, opened earlier this year, casts itself as protection for the locals' valuable baubles both from sticky fingers and Mother Nature's bad days.

RoboVault is a wholly enclosed robotic retrieval and storage system much like you'd find at most shipping ports, without the bilge pumps and catcalls. Drive inside the concrete-and-steel-reinforced building that can withstand Category 5 hurricanes and 200-mph winds, and place your car on the pallet. Once the system has identified you with retinal scanning, heartbeat detection, and biometric recognition an automated arm will remove your vehicle to your assigned container.

RoboVault also houses a climate-controlled wine cellar for 4,000 bottles, and safe deposit boxes. Another touch: a business center and wine-tasting lounge if you've parked your car before heading to the airport and have time to spare, and a valet service that will retrieve your car if you call ahead.

When the region is tested by the inevitable hurricane, a large scale power outage will be neutralized by RoboVault's back-up generator. It maintains 100% of the building's electrical operations for two weeks, including the motion detectors and infrared alarms, so there'll be no Die Hard antics here. Tucked in its steel mesh unit, your Ferrari will be prepared for the Second Coming, and that might make the Rapture all the more rapturous.

[Source: MotoBullet]

Tags: florida, robovault, wheels