A robot valet is a flat machine that slides under a car, lifts it by the wheels and parks it on its own. There is no driver inside: you leave the car at the entrance, and it is brought back to you at the exit. For a developer, an airport or a hotel, it means more cars in the same space; for the driver, not a single lap of the underground level looking for a spot.
How it works
The Hyundai WIA robot, just 11 cm tall, slides under the car, clamps the wheels and lifts a car of up to 3.4 t — enough even for a large SUV. Its body is low, so the robot fits under an ordinary car. Moving a car is easier for it than for a person at the wheel: no doors to open, no turning around, no searching for a space by eye.
The robot moves at 1.2 m/s — the pace of an unhurried walk — and navigates by lidar: the laser measures distances to columns, walls and neighboring cars, and the parking map is stored in the system. One system controls 50 robots at once: it hands out jobs, plans routes so the robots don’t meet, and knows where every car is parked and when it is time to bring it out.
The main gain is density. When a robot parks the cars, there is no need for wide lanes to maneuver or room to open doors: cars stand in rows, almost touching. More spaces fit in the same area. In France and the UK, the Stan robot from Stanley Robotics already works this way — since 23 Jul 2026 it has been parking cars at Gatwick Airport.
Where it already works
- Gatwick Airport — the Stan robot has been parking cars since 23 Jul 2026
- Paris (Charles de Gaulle Airport) and Lyon — more sites of the Stan robot
- Incheon Airport and Raemian residential complexes — Parkie robots from HL Robotics
- Siheung, Korea — a Hyundai WIA pilot in a residential complex
What to consider
- No standard prices: the system is calculated per project — area, number of spaces, car flow
- Fire and building codes are worked through before the design, not after
- Russia — Korean suppliers are cautious, a separate review is needed; in Vietnam there are no such projects yet
- Check the floor: the robot needs a level path, and slopes and surface are confirmed with the manufacturer