London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service • Hacker News Board

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#101

Post by scratcheee » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

dyauspitr wrote: post #81

pkulak wrote: 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.

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.

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#102

Post by dgellow » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

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

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#103

Post by jauntywundrkind » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC

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.

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#104

Post by tonyedgecombe » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

0x3f wrote: post #20

beardyw wrote: post #9

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.

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.

I remember using one in Fleet Street in the eighties.

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#105

Post by myself248 » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

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?

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#106

Post by Reason077 » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

pontus wrote: 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?

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.

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#107

Post by jameshart » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #102

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

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.

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#108

Post by dybber » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

myself248 wrote: post #105

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?

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

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#109

Post by mjfisher » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

myself248 wrote: post #105

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?

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

Re: London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service

#110

Post by myself248 » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

bravoetch wrote: post #62

wat10000 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.