First rope-free horizontal-vertical elevator system

The first cable-free building elevator in the world, and which is also the first to be capable of moving both horizontally and vertically, is the three-track Multi system installed in 2017 by ThyssenKrupp in a 246-m-tall (807-ft) test tower in Rottweil, Germany. It uses magnetized cabins moving on an electromagnetic track, allowing cabins to ascend vertically, stop, move sideways on to a second track, and then move upwards or downwards as desired.

Complex algorithms calculate how cabins get from A to B in the fastest time without stopping. ThyssenKrupp report that the system produces up to 50% higher transport capacity and 60% savings in energy. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat called the Multi system the "biggest development in the elevator industry since the invention of the safety elevator some 165 years ago". Wired magazine dubbed the invention the "Wonkavator", after the magical glass elevator used by the Roald Dahl character Willy Wonka in the 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.