Sean O’Connor drove his Jeep into the porte cochère and through the wide garage door at the far end and got out.

After that, the garage took over, but not with an attendant behind the wheel. The garage in Mr. O’Connor’s luxury building in Lower Manhattan is automated. No one touched the Jeep as it was lifted to its parking space five floors above.

The parking system is a high-tech twist possible in a building with a porte cochère, the urban version of a carport — a covered-driveway-and-entry combination that was popular in the days of horses and carriages.

“Porte cochère” — pronounced port KO-shair —is a French term that originally described an entrance to a building large enough for a coach to be driven into an interior courtyard. Think palaces. Think Louis XIV.