4 days ago
Driverless vehicles trial to carry Teesside travellers to planes
Holiday-goers at an airport will be carried to their planes by driverless vehicles following a £1m International Airport has signed a contract with Aurrigo International Plc, which will trial its eight-seater Auto-Shuttle at the site from company will also test its Auto-Dolly Tug, which has been designed to carry cargo and bags around airports, from Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said the trial would bring jobs and investment to the region and put Teesside on the map for "cutting-edge innovation".
If the trials are successful, passengers could be transported to their flights by the driverless vehicles from early 2026."These vehicles arriving in just a couple of months' time are a huge boost and I'm excited to see them serving holidaymakers on our year-round flights in the New Year," Houchen said.
Earlier this year, the airport announced plans to invest £2m to construct a new facility focused on testing and building "trackless trams".The Tees Valley Combined Authority said it hoped the facility would allow driverless vehicles to operate in town centres by the end of vehicles will complete trial runs at the new test centre before they are moved airside.
Airport managing director, Phil Forster, said the new technology would allow bags to move from check-in to the planes "more seamlessly, and in an even greener way"."It will also help us shape how we move passengers around Teesside in the future and will likely have an impact on the whole aviation industry," he CEO David Keene said the company's vehicles had been deployed across the world but this would be the first time they were integrated at a "live airport".
Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
