Flat Robots Can Tow or Park Your Car

Let’s take a ride into the future. You’re struggling to fit your SUV into that tight parking spot, so you call on a crew of robots to your rescue. From out of nowhere come eight flat robots, two for each wheel, and they maneuver your SUV dent-free into the tight space.

The technology exists today — although not so much for parking vehicles, yet. It’s called the Autonomous Vehicle Emergency Recovery Tool (AVERT), and it started as a European research project to offer law enforcement or military personnel a way to remove suspicious vehicles from vulnerable locations, such as tunnels, low bridges and underground parking garages.

But recently, the AVERT team demonstrated their robots to several potential industrial partners and it’s possible that the robots could enter commercial production as early as 2016.

 Bad parallel parkers: listen up. You might get some real parking assistance after all, since the team of mini-flatbed robots are capable of moving forward and back and side-to-side.

That means vehicles could be removed from confined spaces with delicate handling, swiftly and in any direction, according to AVERT.
For now, this team of mini-flatbots are on a mission to help make our streets safer, but that’s not to say they couldn’t lend some driving assistance or even steal cars in the future.