Skip to main content

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."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cognitive boss on AV safety: ‘It’s about human life, not just big money’
    March 3, 2020
    Olga Uskova, founder and president of Russia-based Cognitive Technologies, puts herself in the hotseat with ITS International to answer questions about advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), dominating the global market – and, of course, The Beatles…
  • Navya & Vinci get French AV tender
    November 25, 2022
    New consortium aims to provide driverless shuttles to improve rural mobility in France
  • Road user charging - replacing the gas tax with a mileage based fee
    January 19, 2012
    Oregon Department of Transportation's James Whitty discusses his state's progress with VMT fee-based charging. Back in 2001, the state of Oregon stole a lead on the rest of the US when it decided to address the need to do something about the gas tax and its decreasing ability to fund highway construction and upkeep. Recognising that a dwindling pot of money could only shrink further as vehicles became more fuelefficient, Oregon's Legislative Assembly passed laws which led to the setting up, by the state's g
  • Autonomous vehicles: threat or opportunity for urban mobility?
    January 17, 2017
    According to a new position paper from the International Association Of Public Transport (UITP), autonomous vehicles (AVs) will lead to a dystopian future of even more private car traffic on the road unless they are put to use in shared fleets and integrated with traditional public transport services. The paper, ‘Autonomous vehicles: a potential game changer for urban mobility,’ indicates that, despite the risk of increased congestion due to car travel becoming even more comfort