[pontus]

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?

[simonklee]

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.

[telesilla]

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.

[nextos]

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.

[blitzar]

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...

[nextos]

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

[myegorov]

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

[crote]

Practical fact: Schiphol is built literally on top of one of the busiest train stations in the country.

Virtually all major cities have a direct rail connection to it, with frequencies from 2x / hour all the way up to 10x / hour. No direct connection? There's probably a one-transfer option running 4x / hour.

It's a five-minute walk from the train platform to the check-in desks. It is closer than the taxi stands or the parking shuttle. It is definitely cheaper than them as well. Level boarding is increasingly common, so there's a good chance you can just roll your luggage onto the train. The trains are generally clean and safe, homeless people and drug addicts on the train are incredibly rare.

If you visit The Netherlands, don't bother exploring other forms of transport until you are absolutely certain that rail transport is impossible. You'll just be wasting money and making things needlessly difficult for yourself.

[usrnm]

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

[juleiie]

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

[dredmorbius]

If you're limiting yourself to carry-on, or even allowing for a (small) checked bag, there are bicycle panniers you can easily mount on the bike and then either carry aboard the plane or check.

Heck, you could pack a bicycle travel bag and pack your bike itself as checked luggage.

NYTimes Wirecutter has had some decent pannier reviews. I've had good luck with Arkel bags. Ortlieb look pretty bombproof.

Wirecutter: <https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-bike-rack-ba...>

Article: "How To Fly With Bike Boxes & Bags For Touring & Bikepacking?" <https://tomsbiketrip.com/how-to-fly-with-bike-boxes-bags-for...>.

Arkel's "Bug" Pannier Backpack: <https://arkel.ca/products/bug-pannier-backpack>.

(Numerous other models, this might be well-suited to bike-hike touring.)

[aequitas]

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.

[juleiie]

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?

[masklinn]

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.

[DonHopkins]

I love seeing the delighted expressions on kids’ and dogs’ faces riding in bakfietsen.

[skrebbel]

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.

[gib444]

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

[Etheryte]

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

[eptcyka]

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

[holoduke]

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.

[Symbiote]

I've cycled to Copenhagen Airport. A friend who lives about 15 minutes away (by bike) presumably cycles there when she flies for short meetings with just a backpack.

[skrebbel]

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

[masklinn]

And Schiphol has ov-fiets and bike garages.

[wat10000]

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.

[bravoetch]

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.

[myself248]

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.

[grogenaut]

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.

[myself248]

It lifts the tires by scooping them up wheel-dolly style.

Machines precisely like this, but manually piloted, are used in automotive plants themselves to move vehicles that fail end-of-line test, had an assembly mishap affecting the powertrain, or otherwise need to be shuffled around when they're not able to move under their own power. As long as it has tires, it can be moved this way.

Stringo™ and DJ CarCaddy™ are some popular brands, if you want to see more of how this type of lift works.

[clort]

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

[pbhjpbhj]

Also great for stealing cars, presumably.

[wat10000]

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.

[crusty]

It's solving the 'meatsack labor costs are really cramping my profitability' problem.

It's an inconveniently located valet service. But oh, you keep your keys. So it's really an inconvenient tow-truck valet service - or two guys with fork lifts.

[amelius]

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?

[wildzzz]

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.

[semiquaver]

  > (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.

[domh]

It says Stanley Robotics in the article: https://www.stanley-robotics.com/

Edit: seems like they got bought out in 2024 by HL Robotics: https://en.hlrobotics.co.kr/

[SoftTalker]

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.

[jakzurr]

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

[bwblabs]

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

[Nition]

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.

[bwblabs]

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.

[mschuster91]

> 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.

[kkrkgbbsvjdlzn]

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

[shermantanktop]

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

[w4der]

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

[varispeed]

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.

[kkrkgbbsvjdlzn]

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

[close04]

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.

[varispeed]

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

[clickety_clack]

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.

[iamben]

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.

[scoot]

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.

[iamben]

Yes. I read the article. You leave your car in a close and available garage so you don't have to search for a space. The robot takes your car and finds you a parking space to leave it.

What about my comment was wrong? At some point my dad gets to park his car in a garage close to the airport, a robot deals with it. At that point what does it matter if the space is 30 seconds from the garage or 5 miles?

[have_faith]

Article says one of the terminals is within walking distance

[IshKebab]

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.

[crusty]

I love (/s) that there's a Cafe business that can survive on a singular customer base of people who parked their cars for a long time in one very specific parking lot.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/wL9jK7Pnsc2Ezzp4A

[IshKebab]

That's almost certainly where the shuttle bus goes from, and there are people waiting for the bus.

[kkotak]

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

[IshKebab]

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.

[pbhjpbhj]

Bus to Bristol Temple Meads (railway station) used to be pretty good. Bristol now charge cars £8.50 (for 5mins) to use the drop zone. This means lots of cars dangerously trying to set-down/pick up passengers in the busy main roads outside the airport. The government should step in; passengers should have a drop zone they can safely walk into the terminal from.

[IshKebab]

The secret is that you can drop/collect people at the silver parking zone for free, and there's a shuttle to the airport which is quite frequent and short.

But I agree, trying to extract money from people like this is greedy and dangerous.

My experience of the airport flyer has not been at all good.

[arjie]

From London proper, it's best to take the train to the airports. If you're lucky you're flying out of London City Airport, but most of the time I'd go to Gatwick or Heathrow by train and it's a good way to get there.

[Reason077]

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.

[dom96]

Meanwhile their toilets are all completely down because of water supply failures[1]. A sad and funny juxtaposition.

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

[mattlutze]

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.

[atmosx]

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.

[ghm2199]

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.

[the__alchemist]

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)

[Reason077]

> "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.

[iamtheworstdev]

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)

[sarjann]

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.

[globular-toast]

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.

[INTPenis]

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

[mcfedr]

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