If you thought vending machines were just for fast food, think again. They are now for fast cars. From a Singapore “vending machine” you can order Bentleys, Ferraris and Lamborghini’s.
Who thought of this innovation? None other than the used car seller Autobahn Motors. They wanted to make efficient use of space in land-scarce Singapore and stand out from competitors. So in December, they opened a 15-story showroom, with 60 slots for vehicles, calling it the “world’s largest luxury car vending machine.”
How does it work? Well if you are in the market for a super fancy car, you can stand on the ground floor and with a touchscreen choose the car of your dreams. With an advanced system that manages vehicle retrieval, the car arrives within one to two minutes.
Gary Hong, general manager at Autobahn Motors, said, “We needed to meet our requirement of storing a lot of cars. At the same time, we wanted to be creative and innovative,” he told Reuters. He has been approached by developers interested in using the company’s Automotive Inventory Management System for parking services.
But they aren’t the only ones. In fact, U.S. company Carvana uses vending machine-like towers to sell used cars. March marks the month it opened an eight-floor structure holding up to 30 cars. The Carvana vending machine, is a coin-operated. The proprietary Car Vending Machine offers a unique pick-up experience for customers who purchase a car online through the company.
How does it work? Carvana customers search for and then buy their car online at Carvana.com using — you guessed it – a mobile phone or desktop computer. Not only can customers buy the car, but they can also choose the vehicle financing through Carvana and even have the option to trade-in a car.
Once the purchase is complete, customers can choose to have their car delivered directly to their door or they can elect to pick it up at one of Carvana’s Car Vending Machines. If they choose to come to the vending machine, at the time of pick-up, the customer receives an oversized Carvana coin to drop into the custom coin slot at the at the car Vending Machine. The purchased car is automatically retrieved from the tower and moved through the machine until it reaches a delivery bay. There, the customer gets to drive away!
Where will the next source of innovation come from? You never know these days!
@drnatalie
Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2017.