Modern commerce has given rise to all kinds of vending machines. From pizza and beer to umbrellas and gold bars, if there is demand, someone will likely build a machine for it. That brings us to Singapore, where the local company Autobahn Motors has created a giant vending machine that offers luxury supercars. The concept is not entirely new, but this version holds 60 cars across 15 floors and highlights the huge potential of vertical parking.
Many consider Japan the mecca of vending machines. If you would like to learn more, you can watch an excellent episode of BEGIN Japanology dedicated to them. Coffee, tea, umbrellas, hamburgers, a plate of pasta... the list goes on. Needless to say, the popularity of vending machines depends on many factors, including prices and the ever-present risk of vandalism. However, we cannot deny that some designs are very pleasing. At the end of the day, vending machines are nothing more than “interactive advertising billboards”, and they need to grab the consumer's attention. Now, what happens when the product itself is more attractive than the machine? Say... a sports car?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0OBciQhVu24No, it's not a lie. The folks at Autobahn Motors in Singapore built a vending machine as big as a 15-story building, with the aim of offering the public supercars of the caliber of Lamborghini, McLaren, Ferrari, Porsche, and others. It has space to store a total of 60 vehicles, and the extraction process takes only a couple of minutes. Aerial footage makes the building look like a collection of Hot Wheels, and more than a few web users accused the video of being pure CGI.
This vending machine is nothing more than a large-scale version of existing designs. The American company Carvana presented its own machine in 2013, and the earliest Japanese options date back to the '90s. Whatever we might think about selling luxury cars in this kind of facility, one thing is certain: storing vehicles one on top of another is much more efficient. Vertical parking continues to gain traction around the globe, and the benefits are even greater when done underground.
