Elevators are pretty standard – they go up, they go down. Some are faster than others, and some are pretty damn slow. However one German tech company by the name of ThyssenKrupp has envisioned a future in which elevators are able to work without the need of cables, and to top things off, will be able to travel horizontally as well!
Dubbed the MULTI, according to Andreas Schierenbeck, one of the company’s executives, “As the nature of building constructions evolve, it is also necessary to adapt elevator systems to better suit the requirements of buildings and high volumes of passengers.” The company is also estimating that its elevators will be able to travel about 5 meters per second.
The company believes that the MULTI elevators can save a lot of time. They has calculated and revealed in New York City, office workers apparently spend a cumulative 16.6 years waiting for elevators, and about 6 years in elevators themselves, so with the new design and its speed, it could reduce elevator footprint by about 50%, and increasing a building’s available space by 25%.
So when can we expect to see the first MULTI elevators implemented into our buildings? Well according to the company, they are expected to test the first MULTI come 2016, so we can only imagine that it will take a few years before developers start to take advantage of the MULTI in future developments, assuming that it really does live up to its potential.
Filed in ..