HMI Technologies announces first autonomous bus to operate in NZ

In breaking news from the ITS World Congress, HMI Technologies announced that New Zealand's first autonomous bus will soon be operating at Christchurch airport. Following meetings at Intertraffic in Amsterdam and consequent conversations with engineers, HMI decided to purchase the vehicle from French manufacturer NAVYA. According to HMI’s Dean Zabrieszach, the announcement has already generated plenty of interest.
October 11, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
From left to right: Henri Coron of Navya, Ahmed Hikmet and Dean Zabrieszach

In breaking news from the ITS World Congress, 8502 HMI Technologies announced that New Zealand's first autonomous bus will soon be operating at Christchurch airport.

Following meetings at Intertraffic in Amsterdam and consequent conversations with engineers, HMI decided to purchase the vehicle from French manufacturer 8379 NAVYA. According to HMI’s Dean Zabrieszach, the announcement has already generated plenty of interest.

“Obviously, we’ve worked closely with Christchurch airport on this project but we’ve already received enquiries from other airports, government bodies and universities, all of which are keen to examine the potential for this technology,” said Zabrieszach.

“We’ve been watching the implementation of autonomous vehicles around the globe and we felt the best way for people to understand this technology, was to bring a unit to NZ.”

The NAVYA ARMA is electric and autonomous, it carries 12 passengers at a time and features multi-sensor technologies for accident prevention.

“The local regulations make it easier to test the NAVYA and we’ll let customers conclude just how much potential this technology has.

"Having the unit in NZ will also enable us to really understand the potential autonomous vehicles will have for our business,” he said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • CES 2021 | Connecting cities
    March 1, 2021
    Covid-19 forced the Las Vegas Convention Center to close its doors for CES 2021, but the trade show’s online debut suggests the pandemic is helping cities
    Read More
  • ITS World Congress in Melbourne has been outstanding success
    October 12, 2016
    This week’s ITS World Congress is on track to be an outstanding success, says Brian Negus, ITS Australia president, and RACV general manager public policy. “Our target for the congress was 7000 delegates, but as of late Tuesday, we had 9850 delegates – and we’ve had great feedback from our plenary sessions,” he said.
    Read More
  • Øresund bridges the front line for border crossing traffic
    September 15, 2016
    Timothy Compston considers the challenges faced by the operators of the Øresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden, the largest structure of its kind across Europe. In light of the concerns about the ongoing security threat and the unprecedented flow of migrants, many of the countries that make up the Schengen Area in Europe have re-introduced border controls. For its part, Sweden has rolled out ID checks for train, bus and ferry passengers from Denmark placing the landmark Øresund Bridge very much on the fr
    Read More
  • BlipTrack monitoring in New Zealand
    January 24, 2013
    Danish wireless technology company Blip systems has supplied engineering and technology services provider Beca with its BlipTrack Bluetooth traffic monitoring system, which has been deployed in Waikato, New Zealand. The Te Rapa Bypass project is the first of a planned US$2 billion investment by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) in the Waikato region’s transportation network over the next eight years. The BlipTrack solution has been established in advance of these projects and will continue to assess
    Read More

Highlighted Content