If you follow tech news you know that robots are taking more jobs away from humans. From flipping burgers to package delivery robots have the chance to eliminate many of the mundane jobs from our life. Not everyone is happy about that but another group of people now have their jobs threatened. Robots are now capable of being valets.
Robot Valets?
A pilot program between French tech company Stanley Robotics and London’s Gatwick Airport will test a robot called Stan beginning in August for three months in one of the long-term parking lots. Stan has already been trialed at some of the busiest airports in Europe: Lyon, Dusseldorf and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle, the world’s 10th busiest passenger airport in 2017 when Stan was trialed.
Drivers will drop their car off at a predetermined location (a custom built garage typically called a cabin) and summon Stan to pick up the car. The kiosk at the location will also allow for the user to verify their flight information (including their return trip) using a touchscreen panel and barcode scanner. Stan has a built in ramp that it will use to load the car on and the vehicle will be taken to the parking lot and placed in a space that will fit the vehicle. The system is linked to the flier’s information and since it knows the return information Stan can deliver the car for the flier to have it waiting as they pick up their baggage. No more waiting for a shuttle to take you to a remote lot, no more searching a large lot to find the vehicle in potentially any weather and Stan does not even require a tip.
Why a robot?
At some of the world’s busiest airports finding a parking spot may not be easy. With more global trade and travel airports are busier than ever and parking is an important part of any airport and often one that cannot be expanded easily. Stan is able to maximize the amount of space in a lot. Why? It places the vehicles right next to each other since no extra room is needed for drivers and passengers to enter or exit the vehicle. The cars can be placed potentially 6 or 7 deep thereby maximizing even more space. It may only save a foot or two between cars but over the course of a large lot that space can add up and allow for more cars to be parked maximizing available space and profit.
The lot used by Stan will be accessible only by robots and one would figure authorized personnel. The public will not have access to it and the passenger will keep the keys to the car with them. This limits the potential for damage to the vehicle as well from other passengers and wildly swinging car doors and hopefully also prevents vehicle theft. Stan uses arms to lift the vehicle by the tires and causes no damage to the vehicle.
The Potential
So far user experiences seem to be positive from the airports, even calling the experience at de Gaulle a huge success. But Stan is capable of doing much more and can potentially handle urban parking. Given the tight streets of many European cities this presents quite a challenge but if cars could be removed from the streets and placed in garages the streets will become much more accessible. This could be a solution to many urban parking issues not just in Europe but around the world as well.
So far Stan has not made its way to the US so it may be awhile before we see anything like this here. Considering that we have some of the busiest airports in the world like in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver and New York’s JFK this could be a major boon. It should make the airport experience much more pleasant and could also simplify car rental as well. It is fun to think what technology is capable of to make our lives easier but valets could be out of a job.
