Robots are taking over the valet service

Each week, we spotlight a cool innovation recommended by some of the industry's top tech writers. This week's pick is a self-driving valet.

Robot valets will now be able to park your car at Lyon–Saint-Exupéry airport in France, said James Vin­cent at The Verge. The robots, created by Stanley Robotics, are "essentially self-driving forklifts": Your "Stan" slides a platform underneath your vehicle, lifts it up, carries it away, and parks it. Stanley Robotics says the system can fit more cars into the same area, "thanks in part to the robots' precision driving."

Humans will supervise the autonomous robots for now, but the system is ultimately intended to work with only remote supervision. The robots will cover just one section of the airport's parking lots, but the price to use the autonomous system for a week ($63) is significantly cheaper than having a human valet ($117).

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