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

  • Mobility itself is moving says cubic
    June 9, 2015
    Cubic’s Chris Bax looks at the challenges and benefits of implementing transport as a service. Imagine paying for travel in exactly the same way you buy your phone service. For example, you would pay a set amount in exchange for a monthly travel package covering up to 100km of free taxi journeys in your home city (including a guaranteed 15 minute pickup) and public transport usage within a 1,500km radius of your home. Not only would this option be cheaper than owning and maintaining your own car, you would
  • Car parking and parked cars need not be a technological black hole
    March 19, 2015
    David Crawford mines the potential of joined-up parking. Drivers conventionally see parking as an isolated, often frustrating, action; but collectively their attempts to find a space impact hugely on traffic flows. But new analyses of parking events look set to deliver real benefits to motorists and cities alike. Initiatives getting under way around the world are highlighting the advantages of connecting up parking events and – eventually - parked cars. The hoped-for results include not only enhanced urban
  • New EU project to develop an 'internet of mobility'
    February 6, 2013
    Over the next three and a half years, the US$21.1 million Mobinet project aims to capitalise on the widespread growth in smartphones, mobile data services, and cloud-based computing to launch a new generation of travel apps for European citizens, and transport services for businesses and local authorities. Intelligent transport services (ITS) apply leading-edge mobile communications and information technology to make travel safer, smarter and cleaner, but the challenge is to deploy these Europe-wide and to
  • New Zealand offers new benefits for EV owners
    August 9, 2017
    Operators of electric vehicles (EVs) in New Zealand are set to benefit from rule changes which will see heavy electric vehicles being exempt from road user charges and potentially allow drivers of electric vehicles to use bus and high occupancy vehicle lanes. From 1 September 2017 heavy EVs will be exempt from road user charges, which otherwise apply to vehicles that do not pay for petrol at the pump, until they make up two per cent of New Zealand’s heavy vehicle fleet. Changes have also been made to Land