Every research/teaching/college hospital I have ever been in has had a special shabbos elevator that automatically stopped at each floor to avoid the button presses during Shabbat (in California).
'Penn and Teller's: Bullshit', I believe, explore the industry itself in Israel while showing all sorts of kookie work-around 'hacks'.
Here's a similar video clip, which shows the 'Institute for Science and Halacha' which specializes in making devices to skirt the rules of shabbat,
"Another approach is EIjara wa EIqtina, which is similar to real estate leasing. Islamic banks handle loans for vehicles in a similar way (selling the vehicle at a higher-than-market price to the debtor and then retaining ownership of the vehicle until the loan is paid)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking