I never thought I'd really see the day that self-storage would become fully automated. It seemed too far-fetched and futuristic. I even had a hard time envisioning it when Chris Mulvihill of Boomerang, engineers of an automated locker retrieval system, tried to explain it to me for one of several short features in ISS magazine.

The technology seemed too far-fetched and futuristic, even though Boomerang can boil it down to a subtle scenario:

"Tenants simply drive up to one of multiple ground floor bays, enter a personal security code, and after about 90 seconds, an automated door opens to unveil the tenant’s personally locked, climate controlled container.  When the tenant is done loading, the push of a button stores the unit back in the system, and the tenant can drive off with peace of mind knowing that their goods are locked in a container that is inaccessible from anyone without the proper security code."

I was still a bit skeptical when a press release issued yesterday announced STORExpress in Pittsburgh, Pa., had the unique badge of honor of being the first self-storage in the world to become fully automated. But the press release comes with a YouTube link, so I could see for myself. Please see for yourself, too, because this is history in the making.

Impressed? I know I am. I even left the company a message of congratulations via the link to Facebook, stating I bet it's only a matter of time until company founder and techno-king Stan Checketts could engineer a robot that would pack, move, load and unload the boxes too. One never knows what the future may hold.