Terrified of dying in a falling elevator? We've got bad news for you. The German engineering firm Thyssenkrupp just created an entirely new phobia for people like you: Fear of being crushed in a falling elevator by another falling elevator.

This is of course only possible if you install two elevators in one shaft, something Thyssenkrupp can now do. The aptly-named Twin system packs twice the number of cabins into your standard human chute. Thyssenkrupp says the funky arrangement moves 40 percent more passengers than a conventional elevator. Georgia Tech likes the idea so much it ordered five Twin elevators for the 21-story office and research building it expects to open in 2018.

The US is late to this game. More than 200 buildings worldwide use the elevators, which obviously can’t magically pass through each other. Somehow, all over the globe, two elevators exist within the same shaft in peace, without crashing. So how does the damn thing work?

The sorcery starts before you even step into the elevator. To call a Twin, passengers select their destination on a panel display rather than a conventional wall of buttons. Sophisticated software groups people traveling to the same sections of the building, meaning you won't stop on every floor and wait as people awkwardly arrange themselves within a small box.

Anyone who rides from the lobby to their regular floor and no further won't see much difference from the Twin. The big advantage lies in buildings where people move between floors on the regular. People who work in hospitals, for example, regularly shoot from the lobby to their offices, but also to hospital rooms, surgical suites, and the vending machines.

In that case, the two cabins make perfect sense. One makes strategically-planned trips between lower floors, while another ferries people from the middle floors to the loftier locations. When there aren't enough people moving about to justify two elevators, the system parks one car at the top or bottom of the shaft to save energy.

The Twin is all part of our comprehensive approach to urbanization. Thyssenkrupp North American CEO Patrick Bass

Beyond easing congestion within elevator cars, the technology frees up space. With each shaft moving more people, buildings need fewer shafts. That creates room for more offices, more conference rooms, more luxurious cafes, more swanky ping pong tables.

As modern workspaces continue the shift away from suburban office parks toward downtown high-rises, maximizing space efficiency matters, says Patrick Bass, Thyssenkrupp’s North American CEO. The Twin "is all part of our comprehensive approach to urbanization," he says.

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Oh, and about the new phobia this creates: To keep vertically stacked elevators from smacking into each other, the Twin's software monitors the space between cabins like a chaperone at a Catholic school dance. If they get too close, the cabins automatically decelerate and come to a stop at at least one landing apart.

Each cab features independent safeguards that operate electrically and mechanically. In the worst case scenario, each cabin has an automatic emergency brake that runs on a logic system entirely independent of other controls. So don't worry about it. Death by elevator crunch would be a tough trick to pull off.