That reminds me of a car park that was built in London in the 1960s (at the junction of Southwark Bridge and Upper Thames Street) - it was called the Zid Park.
The idea was that you drove the car into the lift (like the bikes in the Jap film) and the machine stored the car in a sort of pigeon hole within the 6 or so storey building. The obvious advantages being lightweight steel frame construction, security, greater capacity for the building footprint by obviating stairs, ramps and roadways on each floor. Great concept ... but
Remember this was before the age of computing at any real depth - the whole thing was plagued with problems ... at its simplest : you parked your car (a Mini in my case) and when you retrieved it something else might appear (my best result was a Jag XK150 ... but my key didn't fit)
The car park was abandoned and demolished within, IIRC, about 3 or 4 years
Rob
