alt.hn

7/26/2026 at 2:40:27 PM

London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

 https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/gatwick-airport-robotic-parking-stanley-robotics/

by agotterer

7/26/2026 at 3:40:01 PM

So I'll have to park my car in a garage first, then take a bus to the terminal just so that a robot can move my car from the place where I parked it to a different place? I was hoping it'd be something where I'd pull up to the curb, grab my bags and head in while the robot parked the car for me but apparently I'll still have to take a bus to the terminal?

by pontus

7/26/2026 at 3:48:53 PM

Exactly, i think this product is solving an airport problem and not a user problem. Whenever i park at an airport i always look for the shortest distance to terminal / price, then chose an option that lands within an acceptable range. Unless i'm way for very long shuttle-bus isn't really on the table.

by simonklee

7/26/2026 at 5:43:08 PM

Sometimes airport parking is insanely expensive (cough Schipol), so I'll park further away anyway or park somewhere I can get the train. If this helped lower costs I'd be fine with this but probably they'd keep the high price anyway.

by telesilla

7/26/2026 at 7:09:12 PM

Gatwick long-term parking is not expensive if you book in advance. You need to take a slow bus shuttle to the terminal, but it's never more than 15-20 min including waiting time. I've used it a zillion times as I'd rather not give my keys to those meet & greet companies who drive your car 5 miles. It might void insurance and waiting times when you return tend to be over an hour.

by nextos

7/26/2026 at 7:55:34 PM

I'd rather not give my keys to those meet & greet companies who thrash your car for you while you are on holiday.

https://news.sky.com/story/i-paid-numerous-fines-after-leavi...

by blitzar

7/26/2026 at 9:06:47 PM

Yeah, I heard some horror stories a few years back. Trustpilot and Google reviews had some interesting cases.

by nextos

7/26/2026 at 6:14:00 PM

Fun fact: you can get to/from Schiphol by bike.

by myegorov

7/26/2026 at 7:50:59 PM

Some time ago I would've considered that a joke, but this year NS has been about as reliable as DB, so I might actually consider that option

by usrnm

7/26/2026 at 6:48:33 PM

I mean, you can get to and from practically any airport by bike if you're determined enough.

by Etheryte

7/26/2026 at 7:52:17 PM

World of difference between using cycling infrastructure and sharing roads with 2 ton beasts powered by paleo compost.

by eptcyka

7/26/2026 at 8:24:17 PM

Sure but to Schiphol (and any other airport in NL obviously) there's a proper bicycle lane.

by skrebbel

7/26/2026 at 8:42:15 PM

There are bicycle lanes everywhere in Holland. I don't know a single person that bikes to the airport. From Amsterdam its at least 30 minutes by bike from the city center. Actually have no idea where I would park the bike. It's not common and not practical at this point.

by holoduke

7/26/2026 at 6:27:42 PM

Unless the bike has electric engine and cargo compartment it’s not super viable id say to move all that luggage

by juleiie

7/26/2026 at 6:54:40 PM

Maybe that’s why the “elektrische bakfiets” (electrified cargo bike) is really popular here in the Netherlands. I’ve got one and don’t even live anywhere near an airport, closest one is at least an hour by car.

by aequitas

7/26/2026 at 7:29:55 PM

What about a sudden rainstorm on a bike? Or a heatwave without AC?

The way I see it sure you can go everywhere using a less than ideal transport option and manage if you must. But.. why?

by juleiie

7/26/2026 at 7:45:39 PM

The Dutch have a saying, “Je bent niet van suiker” which means “You’re not made of sugar.”

Rain here is a fact of life, similar to the UK or Vancouver, Orlando or the Amazon Rainforest. Everyone who uses a bike for transportation here has a good rain jacket. And to put things in perspective, the normal rain seen in the Netherlands is more of a light drizzle and it generally comes in fits and spurts as moist air is pushed inland from the ocean. If you can afford to wait an hour, the rain is probably stopped.

Also, getting to the airport with a bike in the Netherlands is fine! There are nice protected bicycle lanes, a nice parking garage, good connections to neighboring infrastructure and you can always bring your bike down to the train platform if you need to go a bit further. When you live in a country that prioritizes cycling infrastructure, taking a bike is the practical, cheapest, and often fastest way to reach your destination.

Now to end on a point of more agreement, I agree with you that the demonization of AC in much of Europe is silly. Nobody is upset that in Bangkok or Tokyo that every building has AC. For some reason a certain type of European just doesn’t want to adapt and they will fight tooth and nail to prevent others from utilizing their own economic means in order to stay comfortable in their own homes. My home has solar panels and during the summer they produce much more power than I can utilize at one given moment anyway so if I want to run my AC at 400W during the peak heatwave that should be of no concern to anyone.

by yurishimo

7/26/2026 at 7:50:49 PM

You’re right, it’s not ideal. That’s why people in the Netherlands invented a special technology to compensate, which they call “clothes.”

Clothes are not really an ideal solution compared to surrounding yourself with a 4,000 pound piece of machinery that costs $50,000, loses half its value in 3 years, and degrades your mental and physical health.

by Grombobulous

7/26/2026 at 8:18:28 PM

Honestly avoiding people on the street improves my mental and physical health by reducing chronic cortisol. These fuckers stare at you and worse. A day of this and i am an anxious wreck.

It’s better to just get in your tanklet. Your little oasis. Home away from home.

That’s how i move nowadays from most point As to Bs. Music, AC, glasses. Perfect privacy. Calmness. Peace.

Kilograms of metal between you and the vicious, antagonistic reality of 2026 AD

It’s not just a car. It is an armor for the times like these.

by juleiie

7/26/2026 at 7:45:12 PM

Like any Dutch mom would say to their kids complaining about cycling in bad weather: you’re not made of sugar are you? (Meaning: you won’t melt due to a bit of rain, quit being a pussy).

by Aaargh20318

7/26/2026 at 8:20:19 PM

I've biked to the airport lots of times. It depends on where you're going of but for short-ish trips a backpack is often though. And I did also once bring a suitcase on a (non electric) cargo bike. Worked fine.

by skrebbel

7/26/2026 at 6:54:45 PM

Depends how much luggage exactly, but bakfiets and cargo trailers can be pretty roomy. Ebike is always helpful.

And that's before you get into tricycles.

by masklinn

7/26/2026 at 8:11:58 PM

Great way to save some CO2! It really pays to be conscious about that.

by gib444

7/26/2026 at 4:02:48 PM

It's still an impressive engineering feat, and (probably, given recent AI advances) an incredible time to market. I wonder when they started working on this, how big their company is, how much training data they put into it, etc.

What is the name of the company that built this?

by amelius

7/26/2026 at 5:24:10 PM

It's probably got some AI but not the GPU gobbling kind. This is old school robotics using control loops and old AI algorithms. Sensors decide if you've parked correctly in the garage. Robot is dispatched via a queue once you've closed the door. Cameras and sensors guide the dolly into place. Robot follows predetermined route to the parking spot and uses sensors to detect obstructions (people, debris, other robots parking cars). Maybe there's lidar on board. Cameras and encoders guide the car perfectly into the designated spot. Robot whisks off to go charge or grab another car from the queue. It's effectively the same level of intelligence as a Roomba with the mechanics of an electric forklift. It's still cool but the fundamentals were developed 40+ years ago, we've just managed to shrink a lot of the tech down in size and power since then.

by wildzzz

7/26/2026 at 4:40:16 PM 

  > (probably, given recent AI advances) an incredible time to market
There’s nothing whatsoever to indicate that this has anything at all to do with LLMs.

by semiquaver

7/26/2026 at 4:35:10 PM

I parked in a robotic parking garage in Denmark ten years ago. This isn't really new tech, though the implementation sounds a bit different.

by SoftTalker

7/26/2026 at 5:15:05 PM

Great, I've been day-dreaming about this for decades, and when it finally happens, I don't notice it. ;p

by jakzurr

7/26/2026 at 6:33:41 PM

2015-06-10 indeed: https://youtu.be/H4jYDfOzrjY

by bwblabs

7/26/2026 at 8:08:27 PM

Ah, that answers something I was wondering about that the article didn't answer, which is how you can lift a car by its tyres without starting already under the tyre and without friction or forcing them to rotate.

Looks like the answer is (at least for this older system), come in from both sides of the tyre with two separate arms, and have each of those arms have their own little wheels on, so as you move inwards it lifts up the tyre and just rolls your mini wheels a little bit. Clever.

by Nition

7/26/2026 at 8:28:52 PM

This is the video of the 11+ year old system installed in Århus Denmark by Lödige Industries from Germany. Lödige Industries more recent solution is actually moving the whole pallet you park on, so you can also plug your car into it: https://youtu.be/-_ZxnDrfwGk?t=46

The system in London Gatwick UK is done by Stanley Robotics from France (which was acquired by HL Robotics from South Korea in 2024), but it could be similar.

by bwblabs

7/26/2026 at 8:59:50 PM

Sorry yeah, I understood that they're not the same company or system, but I couldn't think of any way it could be done (aside from, as you say, parking already on it) so it was nice to see at least one solution.

by Nition

7/26/2026 at 4:09:13 PM

> how much training data they put into it

This kind of stuff has been the norm literally for decades in any major harbor. No AI BS needed.

by mschuster91

7/26/2026 at 6:04:35 PM

We had AI in the 80/90s, we even had an AI hype in the 80/90s.

by kkrkgbbsvjdlzn

7/26/2026 at 6:43:07 PM

The things we called AI back then would not get that label today. Maybe “decision tree” or “expert system”? Or simply “algorithm”?

by shermantanktop

7/26/2026 at 7:54:14 PM

And I bet even current LLMs will get relabeled as not-AI once the next best thing comes around in a decade or less.

by w4der

7/26/2026 at 4:13:58 PM

Isn't this just automated valet parking? Valet parking allows more efficient use of space, which makes it cheaper in places where space is at a premium. Automating it would change that tradeoff in a way that benefits the customer.

by wat10000

7/26/2026 at 4:47:03 PM

It's missing the value-add of valet parking - being able to pull up at the front door and walk away from your car. Without that, this is not valet anything. You still park then shuttle to the airport so there's zero benefit to the end user.

by bravoetch

7/26/2026 at 5:59:34 PM

On the other hand, it leaves the car locked the whole time, no valet having your keys, no valet adjusting your seats, etc. Some of us avoid valet for some of these reasons.

If this thing could pick up my car from curbside at arrivals dropoff like a valet, but handle it robotically so there's no valet downside, it would be amazing.

by myself248

7/26/2026 at 6:38:01 PM

on the other other hand it randomly pressure points the bottom of your car on points that weren't really meant for it.

agree that this would be way better if you just drove up in a queue and cars were taken away. one imagines the slow moving conveyors at amusement parks to get people closer to the ride's speed, tho given how long people take to park, get, take off the seat belt, find park, shut off the car, check their faces in the mirror, Find their cell, button their jacket, straighten up other stuff, find the rest of their shit, get out of the car, kiss their loved ones for 10 straight minutes, struggle with the tailgate, get their bats out, realize they forgot their phone, and finally head away from their car... probbably wouldn't work.

I see people take 5 minutes to get their car moving or get out at a grocery store. what they're doing I'll never guess. Car isn't even started for 3 minutes. When I first learned to drive my dad's hard and fast rule was to get the A/C running before anything else (other than insuring the car wouldn't move), the windows could be lowered with your other hand as a secondary.

by grogenaut

7/26/2026 at 7:04:23 PM

it picks it up by the tyres, so no random pressure points

by clort

7/26/2026 at 5:23:33 PM

In some places, it's no more convenient, and the value-add is just that you can pack cars in tighter. In Manhattan, for example, it's common for valet parking to be cheaper and less convenient.

by wat10000

7/26/2026 at 5:02:25 PM

I look for most spacious parking place with wide approach lanes, then shortest distance. Some car parks at the airports are just ridiculous. So narrow you can't exit the car.

by varispeed

7/26/2026 at 6:06:46 PM

I you have an extreme size SUV, yes, it should be hard to park. It’s by design.

by kkrkgbbsvjdlzn

7/26/2026 at 7:51:54 PM

I don't have a SUV. But why it should be hard? Do you hate people?

by varispeed

7/26/2026 at 7:13:41 PM

I have a small car (regular hatchback) and a lot of the parking spots in the very large airport in my city are just marginally wider than my car. If you can’t get the spot at the end of the row, the only way to park in some of the buildings is to offload all your passengers, hope you find a spot where you can park “right door to right door” next to someone else so you can leave just enough room on the left side to squeeze out.

The parking buildings were built when cars were smaller than small cars today, and as the passenger count increased, so did the need for more spots, in a 0 sum game. They just split the cake in smaller slices.

by close04

7/26/2026 at 5:11:55 PM

Implementation is everything. If there’s enough capacity to drive up and drop your car off without queueing, and your car is ready to go as you leave the terminal then it sounds great. If there’s a half hour wait to get into the drop off zone, and another half hour wait after picking up your bags, and a half hour walk to the pickup/dropoff area then I’d prefer a 30 min shuttle.

by clickety_clack

7/26/2026 at 5:17:44 PM

[flagged]

by ohyayno

7/26/2026 at 5:29:13 PM

Do you have any proof of this? The moderators are very transparent here. I'd be absolutely shocked if that's true.

by birdsongs

7/26/2026 at 6:04:22 PM

I think this is solving the 'airport parking' problem my dad has. He drives to the airport, parks a mile or so away in some field and the company that owns the field drops him off at the terminal. He can leave his car there for the week.

This feels like a clever solution to have some spaces closer to the airport and many spaces further away.

by iamben

7/26/2026 at 7:59:11 PM

That isn't how this works. It doesn't transport your car to a more distant car park - it simply "parks" your car in an available space.

by scoot

7/26/2026 at 3:55:40 PM

Article says one of the terminals is within walking distance

by have_faith

7/26/2026 at 4:44:35 PM

Anything is within walking distance if you're willing to walk...

Anyway here's where it is:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/YZKPXp7LSjc5jPot5

Turn on satellite view and you can see it is on the edge of the long stay parking. I dunno if you're realistically going to save a lot of time unless your parking space is right at the back of the long stay car park. Worth it if it's free! I assume it's overpriced though.

by IshKebab

7/26/2026 at 4:53:40 PM

From the map. It looks like the train is closer to the terminal :)

by kkotak

7/26/2026 at 6:54:26 PM

Yes if you can get a train into a UK airport that's definitely the way, but even in the train-friendly UK that's often not feasible. For example Bristol airport has no railway. Heathrow is very inaccessible by train from the west. So there are unfortunately still plenty of reasons to drive to UK airports.

by IshKebab

7/26/2026 at 6:08:06 PM

[flagged]

by kkrkgbbsvjdlzn

7/26/2026 at 7:07:25 PM

Well that’s the design / usability / real needs part. Which is what these projects often miss. I see often tech replacing parts of a workflow but in reality the process / flow remains the same. Now some parts are digital and we call this “progress”. Strictly speaking it’s digitization but not progress.

by atmosx

7/26/2026 at 5:57:44 PM

Yes, it doesn't make a lot of sense if you can't pull up close to the terminal and leave your car there for the robot to park. But I assume this is just a prototype/trial of the robot tech with a view to expanding it in the future. Presumably they didn't want the risk of broken down (or stuck/confused) parking robots clogging up the busy airport drop off area.

by Reason077

7/26/2026 at 6:11:56 PM

Not a problem for me, :) I always take a shuttle or an Uber to the airport from where I parked, which is 10-15 mins away, because parking at the airport(JFK, LaGuardia, Newark at least) is stupid expensive

The article says:

> The facility is within walking distance of the South Terminal, although a free shuttle bus is also available.

by ghm2199

7/26/2026 at 8:13:28 PM

I guess the argument might be that it'll be faster than finding a spot. Slightly minor benefit is you don't need to remember where it's parked.

by sarjann

7/26/2026 at 4:45:55 PM

Think of it as picking the parking garage or lot you like, but skipping the hunt for an open spot.

As these things go, if the service provider is able to make step one work and the airport continues the partnership, an eventual step would indeed be coming closer to or at the terminal, and the robot scooters (sounds a little like scaled-up warehouse robots) would move the car to storage.

by mattlutze

7/26/2026 at 4:51:55 PM

I will give you a reason why this might be useful. Not at Gatwick. (I always took the train when I lived in that area and usually ended up at Heathrow or Stanstead anyway). But at Raleigh NC for example, you have to go up 5 levels to find a spot, (I have never seen an open spot on levels 1-4) and spend about 10 minutes or more finding a spot after that, then walking from your spot to the elevator, then back out. Or sometimes the lot is filled up, and you have to drive to a lot far away, then spend even longer finding a spot that will be at the far end of the lot, then walking a good distance to the bus terminal.

That's if you know the system, and are aware that you won't find spots on the lower levels, and that the "x spots open" indicators are lying. If you're new, you can spend 30+ minutes on a goose chase, miss your flight etc.

This solves that problem; not the bus one. (If the drop-off location is easy to access; if not, then it's pointless)

by the__alchemist

7/26/2026 at 6:15:21 PM

> "you won't find spots on the lower levels, ... the "x spots open" indicators are lying"

A simpler and cheaper solution would be to fix those availability signs. Surely this is not a problem that a few cameras and some smart software couldn't solve.

by Reason077

7/26/2026 at 7:44:21 PM

Atlanta/Hartsfield just opened a new parking deck with those cameras and I bet some fancy as f### AI powered system. 7 level deck, I tried 4 of them before I realized the green/red lights were just randomly switching back in forth, so the total on each floor never reached zero. Fortunately, the top deck was free.

When I got back I walked past the kiosk that said "type in your license plate and locate your car" for those who forgot where they parked, like I did. Typed it in - no car found. (this was a recent trip, out on 07/23 and back on 07/25)

by iamtheworstdev

7/26/2026 at 7:31:01 PM

It's basically a larger version of P-Snurran they made in Stockholm back in 2023. It was like a CD changer for cars.

by INTPenis

7/26/2026 at 7:32:55 PM

It's more like valet parking except you lock your car and keep your keys. I guess enough people don't trust someone else driving their car.

by globular-toast

7/26/2026 at 6:31:00 PM

especially disappointing as there is valet parking at Gatwick that works exactly like that

by mcfedr

7/26/2026 at 6:01:32 PM

Simultaneously - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/26/water-supply...

by jalada

7/26/2026 at 6:02:31 PM

It’s exciting to invest in the future and not exciting to invest in infrastructure

by kylehotchkiss

7/26/2026 at 6:10:53 PM

Neither VINCI Airports nor Stanley Robotics are responsible for the water infrastructure in South East England.

by joe463369

7/26/2026 at 5:40:15 PM

I am quite surprised by the amount of negative comments here. My immediate reaction after watching the video is that this is pretty cool and I want to try it, even though I expect issues given that it is the first service of this kind in London.

by longsangstan

7/26/2026 at 6:01:53 PM

Personally I wonder why didn't they put several Pater Noster parking machines instead.

Systems with eight slots have decent throughout, the same density as cars parked side-by-side and bumper-to-bumper - even including the space needed to roll out - and are mechanically simple compared to just about anything else in this space.

by Tade0

7/26/2026 at 4:26:20 PM

"Unlike traditional valet parking, passengers retain possession of their keys throughout their trip."

"If passengers accidentally leave an essential item in the vehicle after drop-off, on-site staff will be available to retrieve emergency items."

But.. how would they get that emergency item if they don't have the keys?

by ajay-b

7/26/2026 at 4:43:25 PM

You give them the keys, then they go to the site to collect your item.

by beejiu

7/26/2026 at 4:48:11 PM

They can turn your alarm off while they're fetching your pills.

by bravoetch

7/26/2026 at 4:57:04 PM

I can remote lock/unlock my car from an app, so I’m guessing this is what they are thinking about.

by mbreese

7/26/2026 at 4:37:20 PM

First thing I thought, too. Seems like mutually exclusive features.

by cortesoft

7/26/2026 at 3:31:14 PM

As a general rule, you should take the train to Gatwick if you can, but this is reasonably priced and next time I'm flying from Gatwick I'll probably drive and do this - the train route for me is a bit fiddly, and the worst bit of any London airport for a local is long-stay parking. I'm much closer to Heathrow but the flights from LGW are so much cheaper, it more than covers two weeks of parking at this price.

by PaulRobinson

7/26/2026 at 3:40:32 PM

I always wonder with solutions like these how stuff like alarm systems on the car cope with the car being lifted, the vibrations encountered as its being towed.

Unless they tell you to switch the alarm system off I guess.

by djhworld

7/26/2026 at 3:57:43 PM

I don't think car alarms detect these kinds of vibrations. It's specifically tilt and more impactful stuff. Certainly, the alarm is never going off when I get my car back via the lifts that I've used. It's probably too smooth.

by 0x3f

7/26/2026 at 4:40:35 PM

Car alarms go off all the time on ferries from cars that really don't like being locked and moved.

by walrus01

7/26/2026 at 4:44:58 PM

Ferries tilt and jolt in a way that predictable-path car lifts don't.

by 0x3f

7/26/2026 at 5:21:06 PM

Yes I see this all the time on BC ferries. Usually an Audi or similar

by kvirani

7/26/2026 at 4:03:16 PM

The problem will be aftermarket car alarms. There used to be a car that parked on the street near my apartment that would go off ever time a bus went by it.

by papercrane

7/26/2026 at 5:37:53 PM

Some OEM systems are sensitive too. My mother has a Hyundai that triggers the alarm whenever a heavy truck drives by.

by eliseumds

7/26/2026 at 7:39:16 PM

I asked this once in the past, but...do car alarms actually stop any actual crime ever? My entire life, every time I've ever heard a car alarm go off, literally everyone around just rolls their eyes and ignores it. If I actually looked up at a car alarm and the person outside the car just said "I'm so sorry! You know how it is", I would probably just nod and move on without really taking the time to figure out if it was really their car (because even if they were breaking in I don't have any desire to risk an altercation with someone doing that, and even if I were inclined to call law enforcement, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't come do anything because some random car's alarm is going off).

I want to be open minded that I'm missing something, but I can't help but feel like car alarms are just security theater with a side of nose pollution.

by saghm

7/26/2026 at 3:13:45 PM

It's quite reasonably priced too (for airport parking), about £80 a week booking for September today. I paid that for short stay parking at Stansted earlier this summer.

by walthamstow

7/26/2026 at 3:34:03 PM

Wow, who is subsidizing it?

by tehwebguy

7/26/2026 at 4:00:33 PM

London Gatwick is outside of London, so I assume land costs are low enough that a multi-story car park isn't too expensive.

by throw2ih020

7/26/2026 at 4:03:10 PM

Most 'London' airports are outside of London and they still charge a ton for parking. Captive audience. This one is unusually cheap, even for Gatwick.

by 0x3f

7/26/2026 at 4:16:01 PM

Most of the long term parking is surface rather than multi storey.

by 7952

7/26/2026 at 5:45:19 PM

[dead]

by hiitsmyaccount

7/26/2026 at 3:24:39 PM

That is pretty good pricing. I’m surprised. I wonder if this is just introductory pricing. It seems like there’s not much throughput for something like this. I can’t see how this could handle a constant stream of people wanting to park their cars.

by sixQuarks

7/26/2026 at 4:53:50 PM

> It seems like there’s not much throughput for something like this. I can’t see how this could handle a constant stream of people wanting to park their cars.

Assume your car park is a grid of cars, 20 cars wide and 20 cars long, i.e. 400 parking spaces.

You make the entire first row drop-off/pick up points. With 20 pick up/drop off points you can have a lot of people dropping off or picking up at the same time. And you know pretty well when people will be picking up their cars, as you know their flight arrival details.

Assume your average airport parking customer parks for 5 days, that's 80 arrivals and 80 departures per day. Each of your 20 pick-up/drop-off points only needs to handle 4 pick-ups and 4 drop-offs per day. To me that sounds feasible.

by michaelt

7/26/2026 at 5:29:21 PM

Yeah, in theory, but this assumes a linear demand curve, whereas there may be periods where lots of people come to park at the same time.

Most airport parking lots have thousands of spots so you’d need a lot

by sixQuarks

7/26/2026 at 7:51:58 PM

Meanwhile, Gatwick currently doesn't have running toilets: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdew2dnxlzzo

How about we fix basic issue as a species first, before going all robots and AI and trips to Mars?

by ashayh

7/26/2026 at 4:29:11 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/26/water-supply...

As long as you don't want to use the toilet.

by rwmj

7/26/2026 at 4:47:20 PM

It's the perfect juxtaposition of stories.

by flkiwi

7/26/2026 at 6:01:03 PM

Seems it's becoming all too frequent in Kent and Sussex

by gib444

7/26/2026 at 6:26:23 PM

More fun to spend millions on AI than fixing literal shit.

by ukrulez

7/26/2026 at 7:31:35 PM

Even more fun to bash AI from the comfort of HN without knowing how much AI is being used, or at all, in this case.

by jryle70

7/26/2026 at 6:10:27 PM

> Maximum weight: 2.6 tonnes

Wonder what the actual limit is and what happens when you're above it (and the other max. dimensions)? Couple of EVs out there that are heavier than 2.6 tonnes now. (Volvo EX90, Mercedes EQS, BMW iX, Ioniq 9, Rivians (not yet in the UK), ... and many more right around that weight.)

Is it getting measured in the cabin and declines you?

by lrae

7/26/2026 at 7:20:07 PM

Since you have to book in advance, I guess you give them the number plate details. They can look it up online to see what kind of vehicle it is and can decline to book if too heavy. They can cross check the number plate when you arrive.

by clort

7/26/2026 at 8:04:26 PM

TIL you can just look up vehicle information via number plate in the UK.

Possible I guess, but what if you don't have UK plates?

by lrae

7/26/2026 at 4:26:48 PM

You could pack the cars so close together that no one could get into them. Could be seen as a bit of a theft deterrent, although I’m sure the car park itself is pretty secure.

by matthewpick

7/26/2026 at 8:41:56 PM

That's the value change right? You can park more densely as no one needs to get in our out of the vehicle.

by znkynz

7/26/2026 at 5:57:16 PM

I wonder how many people will forget to roll up their windows because they parked in a garage, then the robot leaves the car outside for a week, then the owner comes back to find the car back in the garage but inexplicably soggy and full of mold.

Does the process have a check for forgotten windows?

by myself248

7/26/2026 at 5:58:54 PM

In the UK, pretty much zero. Nobody ever leaves their windows down when they leave their car.

by mjfisher

7/26/2026 at 5:58:39 PM

Is parking with the windows open a normal thing to do in the UK?

by dybber

7/26/2026 at 7:32:00 PM

I have never seen anyone ever park and leave their windows open. Ever

by hbcdbff

7/26/2026 at 5:59:59 PM

In a garage?

by myself248

7/26/2026 at 6:06:30 PM

You didn’t answer the question Is that a thing people do in the UK? I’ve never heard of anybody doing that. I’m not sure why you would do it.

by nfbdhdfbf

7/26/2026 at 7:14:57 PM

Unlikely to be normal, but I have been doing it at a couple of places I park at this year, since I'm there for a while, have to park in the sun and the places are semi-enclosed (ie, it is fenced so random people not walking around but not secure compound level). Also, my car is 17yrs old, I got it for free and don't keep valuable items inside. I prefer leaving the window open to coming back to 38degC inside. No aircon.

by clort

7/26/2026 at 6:56:10 PM

In a garage or not, it's not a normal thing to do in the UK.

It's also not a _normal_ thing to do in the US, though I have heard some people do it in higher-crime cities to avoid the windows being broken.

by jen20

7/26/2026 at 9:26:38 PM

The US is huge. In hot dry rural areas it's also perfectly normal to park with the windows down to avoid the interior getting even hotter.

by userbinator

7/26/2026 at 6:07:03 PM

What difference does that make?

by ThrowawayTestr

7/26/2026 at 6:09:20 PM

Insurance.

by kkrkgbbsvjdlzn

7/26/2026 at 9:02:07 PM

parking was the one part of the airport experience that wasn't broken. naturally, that's what they fixed first.

by luciana1u

7/26/2026 at 6:41:15 PM

The reality of this is a lot less exciting than the headline implies.

by jonplackett

7/26/2026 at 3:16:09 PM

I'd be curious how it handles someone parking poorly in that bay e.g. diagonally. Presumably those lines serve as a parking guide and the door won't close unless you park correctly.

by smnscu

7/26/2026 at 4:02:31 PM

The local car wash has lights that help you park the car pretty precisely under the wash robot. No rails or anything, you park right underneath the robot and it moves around and over the car. The robot doesn't start until you are in position.

by throw2ih020

7/26/2026 at 3:27:51 PM

IMO this would be a terrible idea to let the robots park cars in the same car park as humans. They most likely have a dedicated car park for this where ever car is parked by a robot.

The article says:

"A Stanley Robotics autonomous parking robot then slides underneath the vehicle, lifts it by its tyres and transports it to a secure storage area."

Which seems to suggest this.

by alt227

7/26/2026 at 3:31:47 PM

It sounds like the actual lot will be robots only as it mentions parking cars closer together to maximize capacity.

by wildzzz

7/26/2026 at 3:41:35 PM

I think the OP was talking about humans parking weirdly in the garage the robot picks them up from, not the car park itself—the car park itself is robot only (so they can jam cars together).

by antihero

7/26/2026 at 3:30:08 PM

The parent is wondering about parking in the bay, before the robot picks it up.

by cespare

7/26/2026 at 3:47:37 PM

Robot = some 3rd world country guy driving in remotely

by Elhana

7/26/2026 at 6:22:25 PM

Just in case anyone else is wondering, that article mentions that you get to keep your keys no less than eight times, while being light on all other details.

I miss publications with skilled human editors.

by oasisbob

7/26/2026 at 5:21:34 PM

It's not quite clear from the video but it looks to me like you park up in the garage, and there's a garage door on the other side. So as you 'check in', I guess the 'human' side you drove in on, that door closes, and then the other side opens for the robots to collect the car which I'm guessing is also where the car storage is.

Sort of feels like those videos you see of high tech warehouses where the human workers really only operate on the outskirts of the building, and everything central is completely automated (picking, sorting, storing, inventory etc)

by djhworld

7/26/2026 at 7:10:27 PM

This seems like valet parking-like but drivers keep their keys. Possibly solving the untrustworthy valet problem, but unlikely to be price-competitve with the cheap off-site parking firms that usually get mentioned in the consumer problems columns.

by harvey9

7/26/2026 at 4:50:21 PM

Will probably not be long until a YouTuber tries to hide in their car while it gets picked up. Would make for a fun video.

Tom Scott perhaps? Though he will likely get full access to the system.

by artisinal

7/26/2026 at 6:27:46 PM

This is interesting for the point of saving space. You need a lot less space between cars and can easily park multiple rows without having to leave egress space. All you then need to do is move 3 other cars.

Give a buffer that should be feasible.

by OptionOfT

7/26/2026 at 5:34:08 PM

15 quid that it won't work without installing an app that could have been a website or a card swipe terminal

by lucb1e

7/26/2026 at 5:00:31 PM

I guess we can add this to the ever-growing list of extremely expensive, complicated, inefficient and convoluted solutions to problems that end with the final specification: "but it can't be a train".

by pkulak

7/26/2026 at 5:08:45 PM

My company used to cover a car service for us (limo), my door to the terminal.

When they set up the AirTrain, I stopped using the car service. It took longer, but I have always had a soft spot for mass transit, and I kind of got a kick out of boarding a train in Huntington, NY, and leaving the train, in Shinagawa.

by ChrisMarshallNY

7/26/2026 at 6:29:59 PM

Yes, let's depend on a train for my time-sensitive journey with lots of awkward luggage.

Do you people even ride trains? Are you OK with the 50/50 odds of gettings home on time?

by fdsdffds

7/26/2026 at 7:47:21 PM

Its gatwick, 3 lines go here, one every 15 minutes. I have always taken the train to either Heathrow or Gatwick, there's always been more than enough space to accomodate luggage, idk what people here are on about.

by niltecedu

7/26/2026 at 7:20:20 PM

A train system is a much safer bet than praying traffic won't be bad

by dymk

7/26/2026 at 6:56:40 PM

Took the south Florida brightline 3 times, recently, to get to the airport (+2 times for leisure travel) and it was pretty good.

Get there by rideshare in 20 mins, trains on time, 1hr to city, 10 min shuttle to airport. On time every time.

I moved my luggage by hand more WITHIN the airport than getting to the airport.

Would do it again

by Atlas667

7/26/2026 at 7:20:35 PM

I mean, it probably depends on the train line? Only airport train I’ve ever had issues with was Manchester, and more due to an absolutely ridiculous ticketing situation than anything else.

by rsynnott

7/26/2026 at 5:17:07 PM

Yeah because I want to haul all my luggage on a train journey when I go to the airport. I’ll take a train to a lot of places but the airport is not one of them.

by dyauspitr

7/26/2026 at 5:46:41 PM

Easier to haul my luggage on a train designed for that purpose than take a car and spend longer parking it than the entire train journey. I live 10 minutes from Gatwick, have never driven there, and don’t understand why anyone would want to if there’s any alternative.

Taxis I understand.

by scratcheee

7/26/2026 at 6:36:45 PM

Same, I also live very close to Gatwick, the train is about 4 stops for me and puts me right at the terminal. Zero reason to drive.

by glitchcrab

7/26/2026 at 5:33:00 PM

My company pays for taxi from my door to the airport and I still take the train, unless I am leaving before dawn.

There is both a rational environment choice in that, and a nice feeling of being part of a humming crowd

by rpadovani

7/26/2026 at 5:45:24 PM

I drive an EV powered by my own solar panels. I’ve done my part and frankly don’t much like public transport unless I’m specifically looking to be in the hubbub which is mostly on the weekends when I’m socializing.

by dyauspitr

7/26/2026 at 6:57:45 PM

....what part have you done???

by scld

7/26/2026 at 6:00:29 PM

Presumably, you've never taken the Heathrow Express? That is a train journey that is always better than a car. The Gatwick Express, not so much.

by louthy

7/26/2026 at 7:27:17 PM

As far as I can see, the Gatwick express is mostly an excuse to rip people off. Last time I was there, there was a normal train to Victoria for about a third the price, which took literally two minutes longer. Is there a tourney for which the Gatwick express actually makes sense?

by rsynnott

7/26/2026 at 7:48:29 PM

For not being stuck at any shenanigans that might happen at East Croydon.

by niltecedu

7/26/2026 at 8:08:12 PM

Doesn't have to be binary. Train is more efficient at moving large volume of people reliably compared to a bus or a taxi. I would wager that there are many more people travelling with carry-on only or a single bag for which train is more than adequate.

by entech

7/26/2026 at 7:37:14 PM

I travel 40-50 times a year by flight and I absolutely don't mind taking the train. I live in Zürich which has an excellent rail network.

by Gud

7/26/2026 at 7:15:40 PM

Are these not the guys that ask like 7 pounds to drive up to kiss & fly? Good to see that money’s put to good use!

by kioleanu

7/26/2026 at 7:22:45 PM

£7 is about the price of a pint. Surely that’s worth it given the convenience of driving right up to the front door of the terminal?

by jplrssn

7/26/2026 at 7:28:38 PM

I may be a socialist but being able to bring your heavy luggage to the door of the place you already pay a fee to be at (airport taxes) should be free, no? Like in all other parts of Europe

And they say, oh, no, you can come for free if you’re willing to walk 15 minutes to the terminal. No, that’s greed plain and simple.

by kioleanu

7/26/2026 at 7:40:13 PM

Not everyone takes the car. Why should people who don't deem it necessary to take a personal vehicle to one of the most expensive locations on the planet(city airport) subsidize those who do?

by Gud

7/26/2026 at 7:48:51 PM

What exactly would be subsidized by the people taking the train if the people driving up to (not parking at!) the airport wouldn’t pay a fee?

by kioleanu

7/26/2026 at 5:51:23 PM

I never thought about this, can you steal cars by lifting them like that in the air? Not that I think that will happen, but it would be really funny to hack such a robot and just collect cars around

by dgellow

7/26/2026 at 5:58:28 PM

This technique is frequently used by towing companies impounding cars and reposession agents collecting cars for loan defaults - absolutely you can pick up and take a car away with the right hardware.

Just for most people a stolen locked car isn’t really of much uses.

by jameshart

7/26/2026 at 6:26:22 PM

Yes. If you can get under it.

by OptionOfT

7/26/2026 at 5:10:57 PM

Of all the airports to do it at in the UK this is probably the one that doesn’t need it. Parking at Gatwick is a breeze, lots of options close and far from the airport and quite reasonably priced. Now Luton, that’s another story.

by simonbarker87

7/26/2026 at 3:38:51 PM

> The service must be booked in advance. Same-day drive-up parking is not available.

Interesting, I wonder if this is just a "Like to be able to see availability and cross-reference data to set individual pricing" or if it's because of a technical limitation, and if so, what could that possibly be?

by embedding-shape

7/26/2026 at 4:28:34 PM

Well if there are 100 cars waiting in line for the little garage to be available it defeats the purpose

by dlopes7

7/26/2026 at 4:00:05 PM

I wonder what the failure mode for something like this is (e.g. in bad weather, after a power cut, a car catches fire, etc). Nobody in the country with keys, cars parked so close together you probably couldn't get in anyway... could be interesting!

by flipbrad

7/26/2026 at 4:11:10 PM

> a car catches fire

That's a solved problem, drench the car in copious amounts of water and flush all oxygen with high pressure CO2 tanks.

by mschuster91

7/26/2026 at 4:38:22 PM

BEV thermal runaway fires are certainly not a solved problem. I'm not sure they are as common as some critics suggest, but they are difficult when they happen.

by SoftTalker

7/26/2026 at 7:07:22 PM

Even without BEVs a fire in a car park can easily result in the whole thing burning to the ground if you're not careful. It happened at Luton a few years ago, and I think in the end they worked out it was a diesel that started it.

You're right though, if every car is a BEV of unknown battery health left for a week+ packed bumper to bumper in a baking hot car park in the middle of summer, that would definitely be considerably worse

by ifwinterco

7/26/2026 at 5:19:09 PM

> I'm not sure they are as common as some critics suggest, but they are difficult when they happen.

Indeed, and the usual solution that firefighters choose is to dump copious amounts of water onto the burning vehicle and then drown the carcass into even more water. The biggest issue is that it takes time for the firefighters to arrive - about 10 minutes in Germany by law - and so a fire has quite the time to progress.

by mschuster91

7/26/2026 at 8:56:59 PM

The video didn't show how it actually gets under your t[y|i]res and then gets out from under your tires when it's moved it.

by fortran77

7/26/2026 at 3:30:22 PM

I remember parking in central London where you left your car in a single space inside a building and it would whisk it up onto some unseen location. I think that was under human control but maybe it will make a comeback with automation.

by beardyw

7/26/2026 at 4:48:34 PM

There are some horror stories when those kind of systems break down.

For example this one is about a van which got stuck in one for two years: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx207jwknp5o

Or there was one in Sweden which trapped cars for 2 months: https://www.mitti.se/nyheter/fnurret-pa-psnurran--m-vill-se-... (sorry, could only find a swedish source)

It is because these kind of systems are complicated bespoke automation. When it breaks down it costs a fortune to fix it. And what can happen is that different parties (operators vs manufacture vs maintainer) gets into a contract dispute to see who is liable to pay to get it fixed. Which as you can guess can take years to play out. Meanwhile your vehicle is stuck and nobody who could is interested in spending a penny on getting it out.

In contrast to that this project is better in two ways. There are multiple robots. (or at least there really should be) So if one breaks down the other robots can still retrieve cars (albeit of course with reduced throughput). And because the storage is just a flat parking lot if all the robots give up the ghost at the same time humans can drive out the cars from the edges of the storage rows.

by krisoft

7/26/2026 at 3:50:49 PM

Where was this? I've only seen it in London at very high end residential places. Even then it's rare. Most privately-owned public car parks in London are dilapidated and full of thieves, but still command premium pricing. It would surprise me if one bothered to build the infra for this.

by 0x3f

7/26/2026 at 5:56:26 PM

I remember using one in Fleet Street in the eighties.

by tonyedgecombe

7/26/2026 at 4:23:23 PM

There are systems where you park your car on a moving platform and the whole platform slots into an underground warehouse. That seems simpler and safer.

by inigyou

7/26/2026 at 6:04:30 PM

I don’t think they’re mechanically simpler. Those kinds of underground garages probably require a lot of maintenance to keep running.

by dybber

7/26/2026 at 3:53:54 PM

Wow finally something capable of parking cars! I'm sure it'll be so much better and cheaper than just paying valets to do it too!

by ryanmcbride

7/26/2026 at 4:34:38 PM

The cookie screen for this web site is the most deceitful I’ve come across in a long time. How do I report this?

by reenorap

7/26/2026 at 5:55:32 PM

A sci-fi dream i have is that cars and their engines decouple. That you just own a shell, an egg, and the town owns all the engines. (This dream also includes warehouses and delivery robots of many sizes owned by the town too).

In a funny way, this sort of does that. Sure your car still has an engine but this very much is the car-shell tractor, in practice. This is really neat to see.

I wish them luck. I hope it is reliable enough! It looks pretty straightforwards in how it picks up wheels, which is neat.

by jauntywundrkind

7/26/2026 at 3:24:51 PM

I wonder what their secure parking area looks like.

by trebligdivad

7/26/2026 at 3:58:37 PM

A fenced off flat parking lot with a few cameras here and there. Not sure what you expect.

by krisoft

7/26/2026 at 4:08:08 PM

Well that's why I ask - a lot of 'secure' airport parking suffers from people stealing from it.

by trebligdivad

7/26/2026 at 4:19:37 PM

Honest question, what there is to steal from a car what was left on the parking lot? Especially on an airport where I assume everyone flies off with their luggage and leave nothing or nothing of value behind.

by jq-r

7/26/2026 at 4:34:47 PM

The car.

by trebligdivad

7/26/2026 at 5:19:39 PM

I wouldn't think that should be a problem here if there is any sanity how the system is implemented. With a normal (short stay, long stay) parking lot it is expected that cars leave all the time. A thief breaking into your car and driving off with it, and you getting into your car and driving off with it looks almost the same visually.

Here cars normally leave by a robot picking it up and depositing the vehicle in a garage. Probably there is a vehicle entrance to the parking area for maintenance, but it would be weird to see a car leave through that. Similarly thiefs could cut a hole in the fence and drive through that but again, visually very distinct from a normal operation. Of course it still doesn't help if the security is in on it, but it would be easier to notice that things are askew for a competent security.

So that leaves us with the thieves somehow confusing the digital systems so it dispenses the car to the thieves. And that very much depends on the security of their digital systems.

Hence why I think it would be hard to secure a normal parking lot even when operated competently. But this has the potential if implemented well, to be much more secure.

by krisoft

7/26/2026 at 4:56:25 PM

I agree with you, but given that a lot of car theft is now done by exploiting the keyless entry system, it feels like there'd be easier targets.

by chedabob

7/26/2026 at 5:19:31 PM

They are different opportunities for thieves; airport parking has an advantage that the owners are expected to be away for a while, and, if someone is involved in the parking then they know they may be away for lets say 2 weeks. So then the thief thinks if they can steal the car soon after they arrive no one will notice for ~2 weeks by which time it's in a container on the otherside of the world.

by trebligdivad

7/26/2026 at 3:52:23 PM

You can see it on Google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MQjWHbbc5jeUryGU7?g_st=ic

by helsinkiandrew

7/26/2026 at 4:09:28 PM

So is it that normal looking parking area or is that a multi storey behind the places they show in the video?

by trebligdivad

7/26/2026 at 3:40:54 PM

If you knew what it looked like, it wouldn't be as secure!

by stronglikedan

7/26/2026 at 6:41:28 PM

In what way is this better than an uber?

by mfldkjgkfl

7/26/2026 at 8:42:06 PM

Price, depending on how far away you live.

by tene80i

7/26/2026 at 4:27:42 PM

Great, now let's (gradually) get rid of all surface parking lots and build hyper-optimized multi-floor parking setups not made for human driving. A sort of Ocado Grocery Warehouse [1] for cars.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssZ_8cqfBlE

As always, yes I know this already exists in Japan.

by pj_mukh

7/26/2026 at 7:31:54 PM

Not the best example...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQQlREtqAM8

As far as I understand, first one Ocado robot went on fire, it doesn't have a sensor for fire so it kept going. Neither do its neighbours, who pass right by it and catch fire themselves. And so it keeps going until everything is on fire.

by amiga386

7/26/2026 at 6:29:04 PM

Can it handle EVs safely? The bottom battery often causes...issues if you don't have a lifting puck to spread the weight.

by Onavo

7/26/2026 at 5:33:47 PM

So robots: yes. Water: no.

by Finnucane

7/26/2026 at 5:19:03 PM

This is so unnecessary. Just make better transit options and make it more affordable for people to go to airport.

by blondie9x

7/26/2026 at 6:38:30 PM

Why even go to the airport? Take the train to where you are going.

by ukrulez

7/26/2026 at 5:01:05 PM

I heard horror stories, where "secure storage area" was actually a field without any security. Not saying this is the case here, but one must be mad to give a car like that without knowing exact location it is going.

It's one of the things where I can't see what is there robot's role here.

by varispeed

7/26/2026 at 5:10:34 PM

I doubt the robots have sufficient enough traction/mobility to navigate on any surface that isn't reasonably smooth like tarmac. Also I'd wager the car park the robots go to isn't that far away from the drop off location, most likely on the same land owned by the airport.

by djhworld

7/26/2026 at 7:53:25 PM

My guess is they take the car away from the drop off point to employee pick up point and human drives them away to the "secure location".

by varispeed

7/26/2026 at 3:51:28 PM

Am I the only one bothered because the license plate masking they have used is so bad that you can see the License plate whole several times?

by txomon

7/26/2026 at 5:01:18 PM

[flagged]

by nttylock

7/26/2026 at 3:28:16 PM

[dead]

by jdsfijfdsifs