New Zealand airport to trial autonomous shuttle

New Zealand’s first on-road research trial of autonomous vehicles has been launched at Christchurch Airport, with the arrival of a fully autonomous Smart Shuttle which will begin testing in the next few weeks. Christchurch International Airport has partnered with the country’s intelligent transport system (ITS) supplier, HMI Technologies for the trial, which will use a French manufactured NAVYA ARMA autonomous shuttle vehicle operating on private roads of the Christchurch International Airport campus. Th
January 27, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
New Zealand’s first on-road research trial of autonomous vehicles has been launched at Christchurch Airport, with the arrival of a fully autonomous Smart Shuttle which will begin testing in the next few weeks.

Christchurch International Airport has partnered with the country’s intelligent transport system (ITS) supplier, 8502 HMI Technologies for the trial, which will use a French manufactured NAVYA ARMA autonomous shuttle vehicle operating on private roads of the Christchurch International Airport campus. The Smart Shuttle will carry 15 people, has no steering wheel and is electric powered.

It has no steering wheel and has guidance systems that combine many different types of technology including LiDARs, stereo vision, and odometry. It is also 100 per cent electric and can operate on inductive charging.

Christchurch Airport chief executive Malcolm Johns says his team is keen to understand how autonomous shuttles might operate at Christchurch Airport and how people may react and interact with them.

"We can see the potential for driverless vehicles to transform and enhance mobility and transport options on the airport campus. We want to explore the possibility of deploying autonomous vehicles to assist people moving around our campus efficiently and sustainably, so we formed a partnership with HMI Technologies to consider how we might make this happen."
Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • HERMES Study provides guidance for forward ITS thinking in Finland
    August 25, 2016
    Having authored HERMES, a major study for the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communication, Josef Czako talks to ITS International about his findings and lessons for other authorities. When CEOs of major automakers are predicting more change in the next five years than in the past 50, what is the role of national authorities considering the benefits of innovations in ITS?
    Read More
  • Bringing V2I and V2V communications to workzone safety
    January 26, 2012
    Imran Hayee of the University of Minnesota Duluth's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering talks about efforts to bring V2I and V2V communications into work zones. With USDOT backing and under the auspices of the ITS Joint Program Office Connected Vehicle Research (formerly IntelliDrive) research programme, M. Imran Hayee of the University of Minnesota Duluth's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering along with team of his students, have been conducting research into the application of
    Read More
  • Silos are last century’s thinking
    April 21, 2016
    After 45 years in transportation, Ken Philmus sees the need for major change in a sector currently ill-prepared to meet the challenge of funding and rapidly advancing technological change. Having worked in both the public and private sectors, Ken Philmus, currently senior vice president of transportation solutions at Xerox, appreciates both approaches, but times are changing and he believes the sector needs to change too. “I like trains, planes and automobiles but I love the concept of mobility and that’s w
    Read More
  • Driver monitoring systems ‘will use inward-looking camera-based technology’
    November 9, 2015
    New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Strategies for Driver Monitoring Systems in Europe, indicates that, as the loss of driver attention due to fatigue or drowsiness is a common cause of road accidents worldwide, there is a clear need for driver monitoring systems (DMSs) globally. DMSs can analyse driver behaviour or detect patterns tending towards micro-sleep to issue appropriate warnings and help revive the driver’s focus. Several original equipment manufacturers (O
    Read More

Highlighted Content