Guests at a Japanese inn in Hakone were shocked when they removed their hotel-provided slippers only to watch them roll away and self-park in a neat row. Later, taking a seat at the traditional low tables known as chabudai, floor cushions wheel themselves into place automatically to the surprise and delight of onlookers. It’s all part of ‘ProPILOT Park Ryokan,’ a temporary experience engineered for the hotel by Nissan to promote its self-parking vehicle technology.

Obviously, there’s a big difference between a wooden slipper on a lobby floor and a full-scale vehicle, but Nissan says it uses essentially the same sensors and algorithms for both. Do we really need our slippers to scoot into a perfect line? Are we not capable of putting them there ourselves, and parking our own vehicles, too? Sure. But you have to admit, this is way more fun (and imagine how many bad parking jobs it could avoid.)

The self-parking feature is available in the latest version of Nissan’s all-electric Leaf vehicle, which uses both sensors and a rear camera to ease itself into a spot without driver input at the push of a button. The idea, according to the carmaker, is to “liberate drivers from one of the most tedious, and at times the most challenging, tasks of driving” so you can “park perfectly.” It’s all part of a three-stage ramp up to get us all accustomed to autonomous driving, with fully driverless vehicles expected in 2020.

Of course, the slippers bring to mind existing household technology like robot vacuums, too. Doesn’t it make you wonder whether we’re in for a future in which all of our possessions know where they belong, and automatically revert to them when not in use?

As robotic cars take to the streets, designers are beginning to see possibilities for urban mobility that go beyond human and cargo transport. What if plants, for instance, could be moved around automatically, seeking out sun, filtering dirty air and providing fresh greens within cities?

Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes and Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, the Interactive Architecture Lab at the University College London has designed and built Hortum Machina B (the last letter short for Bucky).

An aluminum core houses the technology’s robotics, monitoring plants on the periphery and changing rotation and position to accommodate their needs. On-board water storage supplies moisture for growth while the ball stays in motion.

This novel mobile ecosystem is solar-powered, so its search for sunlight fuels not only the plants on board but the system itself. With efficient water reclamation, the garden could stay on the move indefinitely.

The internal computer system not only keeps the plants healthy but serve as part of a larger set of smart-city initiatives. For instance, sensors can detect and seek out areas with poor air quality, letting the plants provide filtration on demand.

The sphere could also roll itself through urban food deserts, allowing people to pick edibles as it winds its way through a city. Of course, this shape may not be the most efficient manifestation of the idea, but as a conceptual model could inspire similar and more sustainable typologies.

Presumably, in a future world of autonomous vehicles, there will be both mechanisms and space to accommodate driverless gardens as well as cars. Freed-up streets could be used to transport all kinds of things, not just conventional goods and people but also micro-ecosystems and other stuff we have yet to think of. For now the, the robotic garden has been tested in London and remains prototype. It might not be as productive per square foot of space as many new urban farm designs, but perhaps it makes up in novelty and mobility what it lacks in terms of strict productivity.

Blood streams from Ted Lawson‘s arm into a CNC printer, which uses it like ink or paint to robotically create the Brooklyn-based artist’s image. ‘Ghost in the Machine’ is a life-sized nude self-portrait rendered in just about the most graphic way possible, the whole process captured on video as an alarming amount of blood is applied to a blank white surface.

Visibly drained by the process, Lawson sits beside the machine as it works, replenishing himself with juice as his blood streams out in little squiggles. At first, the image is abstract, slowly coming together as the robot follows the guidelines of the illustration.

“I’m generally not into doing selfies, particularly nude ones, but when I came up with the idea to connect my blood directly to the robot (CNC machine), it just made too much sense to not try one as a full nude self-portrait,” Lawson told the Associated Press.

“In this series I’m really just trying to make a good drawing, which requires a lot of process and spontaneity to achieve. I do consider these works to be drawings and not prints, in that I allow the robot to make certain mistakes or leave in certain glitches on purpose.”

The final print will be on display at the Joseph Gross Gallery in New York City from September 11th through October 4th as part of Lawson’s solo exhibition, “The Map Is Not the Territory.”