Live data from Hacker News

London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

aerospaceglobalnews.com

91–100 of 285 posts

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#91
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

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

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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…

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

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#93
post #72

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".

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.

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

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#96
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#98
post #14

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?

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.

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.

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

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.
Post reply on HN