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Autonomous shuttles at JFK Airport
JFK Airport is testing out self-driving shuttle vehicles.
NEW YORK - JFK Airport is testing out self-driving shuttle vehicles.
The Port Authority is working with autonomous vehicle (AV) manufacturer Navya for the test. They are looking at the possibility that the shuttle could be used as shuttles for airport passengers.
Each of the driverless shuttles has room for eight passengers.
The company says the shuttles have sensors that scan the surrounding area at all times and they follow a pre-programmed route.
"The vehicles are completely safe," Seth Wainer, the Port Authority program director for innovation, says, "And I would compare them to the elevator. And maybe 100-150 years ago elevators seemed very scary until we went out and invented the elevator brake."
If the shuttles go into regular use at JFK they would be North America's first airport to use this kind of technology.
The AV vehicles are envisioned to move passengers safely and efficiently in an airport environment. Platooning is an important feature for AVs as it allows for multiple autonomous vehicles to travel in unison, significantly increasing the number of passengers who can be transported in a single movement.
In the future, AVs may be used for short connections that passengers typically make on foot such as first-mile/last-mile trips. For example, AVs could get passengers to a commuter rail station, a distant airport rental car facility, or from an AirTrain station to the furthest ends of long-term parking lots.
The autonomous vehicles in the test are being operated by an onboard safety operator at all times and supervised by Navya's control center in Michigan. The vehicles have eight sensors and the pilot will be conducted in an area of the parking lot closed to the general public.
"We hope your first ride is very exciting but we imagine it to be a very daily, normal, ordinary thing for passengers," Wainer says.
This test follows one in the Port Authority’s Exclusive Bus Lane (XBL), which is used to expedite bus travel into and out of the Lincoln Tunnel during rush hours.