Car Escape: How to Free the Red Car

What counts as a move

Sliding one vehicle any distance in one direction is one move. Sliding the same vehicle again straight away, even back the other way, still counts as one move, so feel free to adjust. The page shows the fewest moves possible for the day's board, worked out exactly by a complete search when the board was made. Matching it is a perfect solve, and the leaderboard ranks fewest moves first, then time.

Read the board from the exit backwards

The single best habit is to think backwards:

1. Look along the red car's row from the car to the exit. Every vehicle in that stretch is a blocker: it has to leave the row.
2. For each blocker, ask where it could go. A vertical car crossing the row needs to move up or down far enough to clear it; a truck needs two or three free squares in its column to do the same.
3. For each of those squares, ask what is sitting there. Those vehicles are the second layer.
4. Keep going until you reach something that can move right now.

This gives you a tree of what has to happen, and the moves fall out of it in reverse.

Trucks are the real puzzle

Cars are nimble; trucks are not. A truck crossing the red car's row needs a lot of space to get out of the way: a three-square truck in a six-square column can only clear a row in the middle by moving fully above or below it. Hard boards usually have one or two trucks whose escape needs half the board rearranged. Find them first, because their needs decide the order of everything else.

Common patterns

• The swap. Two vehicles in the same column that both need to move: the one further from the red car's row usually has to move first to make room for the nearer one.
• The long way round. A car blocking a truck can often only move in the direction that looks useless. Going away from the goal is normal on hard boards.
• The lane to the exit. Near the end, a column next to the exit often has to be opened twice: once to let a car pass and again for the red car's row.
• Parking spots. Corners and edges are the only places some vehicles can wait. Keep them free when you can.

Fewer moves

• Slide vehicles all the way when that is where they need to end up; three one-square nudges of different vehicles are three moves, one full slide is one.
• Before moving, check whether the same vehicle will have to move again soon. If it will, move it once to where it finally needs to be.
• Use Undo and Start over freely while you explore; only the moves on the board when the red car leaves are counted.

Difficulty

Hard boards are built by searching for the positions that are furthest from any solution, so expect long detours. Every board has a solution; the number shown is the exact minimum.

On a phone and with a keyboard

Drag a vehicle along its lane and it snaps to the squares. You can also tap it and use the two arrow buttons under the board; an option makes them slide all the way at once. With a keyboard, Tab moves between the vehicles and the arrow keys slide the chosen one a square at a time. Another option lights up the squares a chosen vehicle can reach, which makes the board much easier to read on a small screen.

A routine for every board

1. Count the blockers in the red car's row and note which of them are trucks.
2. For each blocker, decide whether it leaves upwards or downwards, and what has to move to make room.
3. Do the moves that are certain first, starting with vehicles that only have one useful direction.
4. Keep the corners free as waiting places for the vehicles that have to step aside twice.
5. When the red car's row is clear, drive it out: that last slide is a move too.