I work on the 35th floor of a building and use an elevator that services levels 23 to 38. When everyone leaves at around 5.30 pm, the elevators are full by the time they leave my floor. However, they still stop at every other floor on the way down, in response to the button-call of the people waiting there. So we stop, the doors open, no one can get in, the doors close, we continue to the next floor. And the people who are on each floor have to keep pressing the button. Our lift takes longer than necessary to return and pick them up, because we continue to stop on each floor.
A simple solution would be a "lift full" button, that passengers could press when there was no more room. This would force the lift to go to the next floor selected from inside the lift, and ignore any external calls until people got out. Unfortunately, this works on the honesty system, and some people would probably abuse it.
Simple weight sensors could work (and are presumably already installed to ensure the maximum weight is not reached) but this is more an issue of space than weight. A caterer with an empty trolley would take up most of the lift, but would probably not reach a weight limit.
So perhaps a better solution would be a pressure mat in the floor (which would only work when the elevator was not accelerating) or some sort of light sensors that test how much of the lighting gets through, or some combination of the two. Or something else altogether that would achieve the same thing - identifying when there is no room for another person in the lift.
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As you rightly suppose elevators in most office buildings (not apartments buildings, for cost reasons) use weight sensors. They serve three purposes.1- Give information to the motor's drive to provide adequate torque when opening the brake.2- Prevent the start of the elevator when the weight in the car is above 110% of the nominal load (as engraved on the buttons panel).3- Avoid stopping unnecessarily for landing calls when a certain weight has been reached. Typically that weight is 45 to 60% of the nominal load. This operation is called load bypass.
Since you work in such a high building I expect load weighing sensors (or the old-time equivalents, micro-switches) to equip its elevators. If the system doesn't work the sensors probably need adjustment, which is pretty normal after many years of use. Report the situation to the building manager who should ask the elevator maintenance company to recalibrate the sensors.
Your dilemma sounds like a really annoying problem that's begging for a solution.
A 'elevator full' button might be used by people not wanting to wait on a ride down, so yes, I do think you need a sensor.
I think the sensor-mat on the floor probably wouldn't be as good as a camera running software mounted out of reach, possibly in the ceiling.
For years intersections detected cars with sensors in the pavement, but they're trouble-prone and expensive. Now they put camera over the intersection and context-recognition software recognizes that cars are waiting in the left-turn lanes, etc.
Except a smart passenger that wants a quick ride down might hold a photo in front of the camera that makes it look like the elevator is full...Almost any system can be fooled.
Mechanical sensors are not reliable and a maintenance issue. There is camera technology that works well to monitor available space in an elevator for passengers.