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

  • IBTTA sees ‘points of light’ in pandemic disruption
    April 15, 2020
    The IBTTA has identified several “points of light” for the tolling industry despite business problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
    Read More
  • After two decades of research, ITS is getting into its stride
    June 4, 2015
    Colin Sowman gets the global view on how ITS has shaped the way we travel today and what will shape the way we travel tomorrow. Over the past two decades the scope and spread of intelligent transport systems has grown and diversified to encompass all modes of travel while at the same time integrating and consolidating. Two decades ago the idea of detecting cyclists or pedestrians may have been considered impossible and why would you want to do that anyway? Today cyclists can account for a significant propor
    Read More
  • New partnership puts Milton Keynes at heart of the smart cities revolution
    November 17, 2014
    Indian IT company Tech Mahindra has joined forces with The Open University (OU) and Milton Keynes Council in leading the charge in the United Kingdom's smart cities revolution, in an agreement which will see the parties work closely together in researching key areas behind smart cities. Smart cities harness the power of big data to improve the running of key services such as energy and transport, making them more reliable and efficient. The new partnership will focus its efforts on: Energy; Transportatio
    Read More
  • IBTTA Summit: satellite tolling is the future
    August 15, 2019
    IBTTA members met in Florida to consider the technological changes that will impact their businesses – including satellite tolling. Colin Sowman reports from Orlando Over decades, the technology employed in toll collection has been honed to near perfection – automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are easily within a couple of per cent of infallibility even at highway speeds. However, technical innovations beyond the confines of the toll road cannot b
    Read More

Highlighted Content