Technology rules the roost from New York to Los Angeles as luxury living redefined

At Ten Thousand, a new luxury building in Los Angeles, a robot named Charley will deliver champagne and chocolates to residents.

Buyers at The Grand at Sky View Parc in New York will never again have to fumble through bags for keys.

At another building in Manhattan residents who need to access belongings stored in the basement can have their entire vaults mechanically brought to them at the touch of a button.

Technology has infiltrated not just how people live, but where they live as well, as developers incorporate the latest in tech to new apartment buildings. What that translates to are doors that open with thumbprint recognition, self-parking cars that are brought to the entrance in 90 seconds and bathtubs that fill themselves as the owner is returning home.

“Things have to be nimble,” said Victoria Li, project director of Polaris Pacific in San Francisco, which oversees sales and marketing for new high-end developments in the US.

“People want the convenience factor. They want the homeowner experience to be seamless, and they expect instant gratification.”