Holidaymakers flying from Gatwick this August can now let a robot park their car for them, as the airport becomes the first in the UK to offer robotic valet parking.
Developed with Stanley Robotics, the service is based near the South Terminal. Passengers drive into a dedicated private drop-off cabin, switch off the engine and confirm via an on-screen terminal — no need to hand over the keys at any point. From there, robots slide underneath the car, clamp onto all four wheels and lift it by the tyres before carrying it off to a secure parking space. Passengers can then either walk the few minutes to the terminal or hop on a free shuttle bus.
The robots navigate using a suite of technology including 3D lidar, cameras and ultrasonic sensors, operating outdoors in all weather. Because no one needs to open a car door once it’s parked, Stanley Robotics says the system can pack around 50% more cars into the same area than a conventional car park, with vehicles stored nose-to-tail and side-by-side just centimetres apart — a useful gain for an airport with limited land to spare. On the way home, passengers simply provide their return flight details; Gatwick’s system tracks the landing and has the car brought back to a cabin ready for collection, with on-site staff available if anything needs retrieving in an emergency or if an issue crops up.
Oli Bedford, Head of Airport Access, Marketing and Commercial Products at London Gatwick, called it “a real game-changer for our passengers… quick, easy and completely hassle-free.” Stanley Robotics chief executive Clément Boussard said the deal marked “a major milestone” for the French firm’s expansion into the UK, as it helps Gatwick “address their critical parking capacity challenges as they prepare for significant growth.” Stanley Robotics, founded in Paris in 2015 and majority-owned by Korea’s HL Robotics, already runs what it says is the world’s first outdoor robotic valet parking service elsewhere in Europe.
The service is now on sale and must be booked in advance — there’s no turning up on the day. For now it comes with a few limits while the system beds in: a minimum five-day length of stay, no weekend entry or exit, and bookings only between 09:00 and 17:00. Gatwick says these restrictions will ease as the service scales up. It’s built for standard-sized cars, with a maximum wheelbase of 3.3 metres, height of 2.3 metres, wheel diameter of 21 inches and weight of 2.6 tonnes.
For those who’d rather skip the car park altogether, DM Airport Transfers offers a simple door-to-door alternative for getting to and from the terminal.
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Sources:
- The easiest parking space you’ll never have to find: London Gatwick and Stanley Robotics launch robotic parking – Gatwick Airport Newsroom
- London Gatwick launches UK’s first robotic airport parking – International Airport Review
- Gatwick deploys robots to park passengers’ cars – Engineering and Technology Magazine
