Monday, June 30, 2014

News From Dusseldorf: Ray the (robot) Parking Valet

We have to conserve our 'gee whizz's' for the truly creative stuff, this ain't it.
From the AP via USNews:
Uncanny valet: Robot to park travelers' cars at German airport

The Associated Press
Parking robot "Ray" transports a car in Duesseldorf, Germany, Monday, 23 June 2014. The parking robot will see service for the first time at Duesseldorf Airport. (AP Photo/dpa, Federico Gambarini) 
Plane to catch and don't feel like hunting for parking?

Travelers at Duesseldorf airport in Germany can soon leave the job to a robot valet.

An airport spokesman says the robot, nicknamed Ray, starts work Tuesday and can be booked using a smartphone app.

Thomas Koetter says all travelers need to do is leave their car in a designated area and confirm it's empty and ready to go.

Then Ray or one of its cybernetic colleagues will take the car to one of 249 parking spaces reserved for robots....MORE
Auto-auto parking has been around for a while:

Some of the tech looks a bit SciFi, for example VW's Autostadt in Wolfsburg: