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The modern elevator industry traces a pivotal moment to a public demonstration in which an inventor rode a platform to a height, then ordered the only supporting rope cut, proving that a safety mechanism could catch the car before it fell. This device, rather than the motor itself, is often credited with making tall buildings commercially viable, since prior to its existence few tenants would risk the upper floors of a structure. Once building owners could market top floors as safe, and eventually as more desirable due to better light and views, rents for upper stories rose above those of ground-level space, reversing a centuries-old real estate pattern. Contemporary elevator systems now rely on computerized dispatching that groups passengers heading to similar floors, reducing wait times in ways the original mechanical designs could never achieve.