Automatic Parking Garage Traps Cars During Contract Dispute

Check this out:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...tw=wn_index_10

The city of Hoboken and the software company Robotic Parking of Clearwater,
Florida, get into an argument over software license, and the software has a
time bomb in it so it quits working after a certain time, and... people's cars
are trapped in the thing for days.

Needless to say, I'm never going to allow _my_ car to be parked in one of these
things. Its a nice idea, but dang... you aren't ever going to know that you
can get your car out when you want it.

What a bonehead bunch - they undermine confidence in their product over a short
term contract dispute. They _should_ have just programmed it to not accept new
parking, but allowed cars to be retrieved and exit the facility. Bet there's a
pile of people in Hoboken that aren't going to use _that_ parking facility
again, either.

Dave Head

"Dave Head" > wrote in message
...
> Check this out:
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/technology...tw=wn_index_10
>
> The city of Hoboken and the software company Robotic Parking of
> Clearwater,
> Florida, get into an argument over software license, and the software has
> a
> time bomb in it so it quits working after a certain time, and... people's
> cars
> are trapped in the thing for days.
>
> Needless to say, I'm never going to allow _my_ car to be parked in one of
> these
> things. Its a nice idea, but dang... you aren't ever going to know that
> you
> can get your car out when you want it.
>
> What a bonehead bunch - they undermine confidence in their product over a
> short
> term contract dispute. They _should_ have just programmed it to not
> accept new
> parking, but allowed cars to be retrieved and exit the facility. Bet
> there's a
> pile of people in Hoboken that aren't going to use _that_ parking facility
> again, either.
>
> Dave Head

Why wasn't the software vendor arrested for multiple counts of grand theft
auto? Stealing is depriving the rightful owner of the use of his property.
That definition seems to fit the situation where the software vendor
deliberately programmed the software to hold cars hostage. That's grand
theft auto, one count for each 'car' that was held hostage. -Dave

In article >, Scott en Aztlán wrote:

> Seems to me like Robotoc Parking is doing the exact same thing to the
> deadbeat City of Hoboken.

Why would the city care about people not being able to get their cars?
The city isn't the one the software company is punishing.

NJ is far enough along the corruption curve to tell the owners of the
trapped cars 'tough ****'.

> At those "buy here, pay here" used car lots, many of the vehicles are
> fitted with a device that will prevent the car from being started
> unless the driver punches in the correct code. The code changes every
> week, and the buyer only gets the new code if he makes his payments on
> time. If the buyer tries to become a deadbeat, the car becomes
> useless.
>
> Seems to me like Robotoc Parking is doing the exact same thing to the
> deadbeat City of Hoboken.

Good plan, if there weren't disinterested third parties involved. Again, I
think that the software vendor is guilty of multiple criminal counts of
grand theft auto, for deliberately depriving the rightful owners of several
vehicles of the use of their property, which is the definition of
tealing. -Dave

"Brent P" > wrote in message
. ..
> In article >, Scott en Aztlán
> wrote:
>
>> Seems to me like Robotoc Parking is doing the exact same thing to the
>> deadbeat City of Hoboken.
>
> Why would the city care about people not being able to get their cars?
> The city isn't the one the software company is punishing.
>

And as I wrote elsewhere, depriving the rightful owner of the use of his car
is otherwise known as grand theft auto, and is a serious criminal
ffense. -Dave

"Mike T." > wrote in
reenews.net:

>
> "Brent P" > wrote in message
> . ..
>> In article >, Scott en
>> Aztlán wrote:
>>
>>> Seems to me like Robotoc Parking is doing the exact same thing to
>>> the deadbeat City of Hoboken.
>>
>> Why would the city care about people not being able to get their
>> cars? The city isn't the one the software company is punishing.
>>
>
> And as I wrote elsewhere, depriving the rightful owner of the use of
> his car is otherwise known as grand theft auto, and is a serious
> criminal ffense. -Dave
>
>
>

IMO,definitely grounds for a lawsuit.
They wrongfully deprived those people the use of their property,causing
financial damages to the car operators/owners.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

> IMO,definitely grounds for a lawsuit.
> They wrongfully deprived those people the use of their property,causing
> financial damages to the car operators/owners.
>

And if anybody else did it, a civil lawsuit would be the least of their
problems. -Dave

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 06:16:40 -0700, Scott en Aztlán
> wrote:

>Dave Head > said in rec.autos.driving:
>
>>http://www.wired.com/news/technology...tw=wn_index_10
>
>>In the days that followed, both sides dragged each other into court. Robotic
>>accused Hoboken of violating its copyright. "This case is about them using
>>software without a license," said Dennis Clarke, chief operating officer of
>>Robotic Parking, in a telephone interview last week.
>>
>>At the same time, Hoboken accused Robotic of setting booby traps in the code,
>>causing the garage to malfunction.
>
>At those "buy here, pay here" used car lots, many of the vehicles are
>fitted with a device that will prevent the car from being started
>unless the driver punches in the correct code. The code changes every
>week, and the buyer only gets the new code if he makes his payments on
>time. If the buyer tries to become a deadbeat, the car becomes
>useless.
>
>Seems to me like Robotoc Parking is doing the exact same thing to the
>deadbeat City of Hoboken.

Hoboken neither owns nor is buying the cars; so much for that analogy.

--
Bill Funk
replace "g" with "a"

In article >,
Scott en Aztlán <newsgroup> wrote:
>Dave Head > said in rec.autos.driving:
>
>>http://www.wired.com/news/technology...tw=wn_index_10
>
>>In the days that followed, both sides dragged each other into court. Robotic
>>accused Hoboken of violating its copyright. "This case is about them using
>>software without a license," said Dennis Clarke, chief operating officer of
>>Robotic Parking, in a telephone interview last week.
>>
>>At the same time, Hoboken accused Robotic of setting booby traps in the code,
>>causing the garage to malfunction.
>
>At those "buy here, pay here" used car lots, many of the vehicles are
>fitted with a device that will prevent the car from being started
>unless the driver punches in the correct code. The code changes every
>week, and the buyer only gets the new code if he makes his payments on
>time. If the buyer tries to become a deadbeat, the car becomes
>useless.
>
>Seems to me like Robotoc Parking is doing the exact same thing to the
>deadbeat City of Hoboken.

Except, oh fan of authoritarianism, the cars they're holding hostage don't
belong to the city but rather to third parties.
--
There's no such thing as a free lunch, but certain accounting practices can
result in a fully-depreciated one.

Mike T. wrote: <brevity snip>

> And as I wrote elsewhere, depriving the rightful owner of the use of his car
> is otherwise known as grand theft auto, and is a serious criminal
> ffense.

I think I'd read Robotic Parkings and Hobokens respsective EULA's
before I started yelling about criminal offenses.

An old buddy of mine owns the software that is used by every major
player, and many more minor players in that industry. If you don't pay
your licensing fee to him, on-time, your program no workee. Period.

He controls *all* the code, himself. If he dies, your program *cannot*
be renewed and if you try to fiddle with the code yourself, it
self-destructs... but doesn't tell the licensee that.

Instead, it calls and tells him *exactly* what happened while it
displays an error code to the licensee and tells them to call Support.
His feeling is, if somebody is going to call and lie to me, they can do
it on their own dime.
-----

- gpsman