Airside speaks to the companies pioneering driverless apron shuttle technology globally
Founded in 1993, with headquarters in Coventry, UK, Aurrigo is a developer of fully integrated smart airside solutions for the aviation industry. The company has delivered seven all-electric vehicles to date, with its aviation-specific models featuring the Auto-Cargo, the Auto-Dolly and the Auto-DollyTug.
The entire range includes autonomous capability, and one of its latest innovations, the Auto-Shuttle, is no exception. Powered by clean energy and equipped with advanced sensor technology, the shuttle is blazing a trail in the emerging self-driving apron bus market.
The driverless vehicles are currently being rolled out in cities, towns and airport car parks globally – as well as airside, where they can be used to transport crew and to move passengers to and from terminals.
In the UK, the shuttles made their debut at Birmingham Airport, and are now being trialled at Teesside Airport in Durham. An Auto-Shuttle will also be launched at East Midlands Airport early this year.
A bespoke solution
Aurrigo sees its Auto-Shuttle as a more bespoke solution compared to traditional large apron buses, designed to speed up the transportation process.
“What we’ve seen is a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’,” says Tenille Houston, vice president of public relations and communications at Aurrigo. “You are rushed off the plane, and you go to the shuttle, and you wait for it to fill before it moves again.”
“With a more bespoke turnaround, [the Auto-Shuttle] can move people faster. You could also have a little more door-to-door accessibility.
“We’re not looking to replace any of these larger buses,” she adds. “Those are obviously needed at many airports where you have very long transfer times and very big spaces. But we’re seeing it’s a nice bespoke option, especially for crew.”
The shuttles operate at Level Four status, meaning that they can function without a human driver, but at least one operator is normally required on board as a safety oversight in most deployments, per regulation. A second staff member may also be present to collect data for regulatory bodies, as the company pushes automation forward globally.
Detecting obstacles
The Auto-Shuttle works by utilising various sensors to provide it with a 360-degree view of its surroundings. Eight cameras, eight LiDARs (light detection and ranging technology, which uses laser beams to measure distance) and ultrasonic sensors are placed all around the vehicle.
Some LiDARs have rotating capability, while others, such as those located over the right and left wheel wells in the front and back of the shuttle, are ‘solid state’, designed to detect oncoming traffic at junctions.
“We utilise sensor fusion to bring all of these sensors together to tell the ‘brain’ – the autonomous drive software – how to operate, where to go, if it’s safe, whether there’s something coming […] and if it gets within the safety bubble, how to react,” explains Houston.
The shuttle has proven its ability to navigate around various obstacles – but when it comes to operating in climates with extreme weather conditions, how does it tell apart an obstruction from heavy snowfall?
Houston explains that the shuttle uses algorithms that draw on more than a decade of learning. Aurrigo’s software has one core ADS (autonomous drive software) called the Auto-Stack, which has run on all of its vehicles since 2015.
“We have had excessive rain at some of our locations within Asia,” she says. “So, a lot of testing and an actual rain algorithm has been developed to really be able to push the boundaries of operations in rain.”
The company is also trialling a shuttle in Ottawa, Canada, in order to test its ADS and sensors on the snowy roads of one of the coldest capital cities in the world.
“We are constantly testing the operational efficiency in all weather,” Houston says.
“If these vehicles can’t operate the same way that manually driven vehicles can operate, then the case [for them] pretty much dies out. Therefore, we test, we trial – and we make it happen.”
Second-generation Mk2 Auto-Shuttle
Aurrigo typically builds each of its products from the ground up, including the vehicle body itself. When developing its second-generation Mk2 Auto-Shuttle, which was launched in 2025, the company took a different approach, upfitting a crash-tested Ford E-Transit chassis.
Like its earlier-generation vehicles, the Mk2 is designed to be accessible for people with reduced mobility. It comes in various sizes, seating up to 11 passengers depending on the number of wheelchair-accessible spaces that are built into the vehicle (a feature that is modifiable based on customer requirements).
The company is also exploring new ways to increase mobility and is working with DeafAI, a transportation startup, to add American Sign Language stop announcements to its shuttle in the Ottawa deployment.
“These vehicles are so futuristic. They should really embody everything that you can think of to be able to increase mobility and accessibility to all,” Houston says.
She highlights that the driverless capabilities of Aurrigo’s vehicles can also bring numerous benefits in terms of safety and reliability.
“One of the number one causes of accidents is fatigue and distraction,” she points out.
“Autonomy doesn’t get tired. It doesn’t get distracted. It is always focused, and it has to follow the rules. Any deviation is recorded.
“Autonomy brings safety, reliability and accountability, and, of course, reduced emissions when it comes to the EV aspect,” she adds.
Promoting investment in automation
Despite the benefits, do passengers have any reservations about riding in a self-driving shuttle? Houston says that travellers are usually excited – but stakeholders sometimes face uncertainty when taking the first step into automation.
“Some of our customers are the airlines, some are the airports, some are the ground handlers,” Houston says. “It’s just about one person starting down the innovation path and then bringing the rest of the team in.
“There’s a lot that goes into making sure that stakeholders can see the technology in action, [and] the safety standards that are set up around the vehicle itself.”
At the end of last year, Aurrigo launched its licensing and hub programme in order to accelerate the delivery of its products at scale. Though it has offices in Canada and Singapore, all of its vehicles are currently built in the UK. Going forward, the company is focusing on expansion and targeting key growth areas, including the Middle East, which has seen significant investment in automated solutions.
Could fully automated airports become a reality in the future? Houston believes it will happen – but it will take a first mover willing to integrate multiple technologies into a fully connected system. “People are talking more and more about it, and there are so many pieces to the puzzle. We only [represent] one piece in that larger role,” she says.
“My hope and vision is that we find an airport that’s ready to piece it all together – from someone dropping off a piece of luggage, to it being loaded by one of the robot arms into a ULD, and then […] the Auto-DollyTug takes that baggage airside.
“I think that’s what we’re going to see more of at airports: trialling that connectivity from A to B.”
Ohmio’s driverless deployments
Ohmio is a pioneering manufacturer of autonomous shuttle technology. Two years after its founding in 2017, the New Zealand-based company launched the Ohmio LIFT – a fully electric driverless vehicle that has been successfully deployed as a public transport solution, as well as in airports, both landside and airside.
The Ohmio LIFT works by following a pre-programmed route, similar to an imaginary rail. The company works with customers to map out that journey to the exact centimetre, meticulously configuring the vehicle’s position on the road, its acceleration and at which points it should stop. Its new, second-generation vehicles are able to travel at speeds of up to 50 kmph.
Joost Ortjens, director of EMEA and corporate development at Ohmio, claims that this level of precision, which provides a competitive advantage, is made possible through closely-guarded positioning technology that amounts to “far more than just GPS”.
The vehicle’s decision-making is also facilitated through mobile network connectivity and the use of LiDAR sensors, allowing it to detect objects in close proximity. This represents a different approach to autonomous taxi companies like Waymo, which rely more heavily on artificial intelligence to guide their vehicles. According to Ortjens, Ohmio’s programming allows for a higher degree of control.
Global deployments
The company is currently progressing projects at JFK Airport and at Newark Liberty International Airport, and has concluded its first airside initiative with Amsterdam Schiphol, in which it transported cabin crew between aircraft and KLM headquarters.
Following positive feedback, a second airside deployment at the airport is currently in the works, the details of which will be released over the coming months. “Of course, Schiphol is not doing copy-paste projects with us,” says Ortjens. “They expect us to take the next step in terms of technology and autonomous performance.”
Ohmio is currently in discussions with two large airports in Germany to transport passengers from terminals to aircraft. In this area, Ortjens emphasises the advantages the shuttles offer for airports in terms of flexibility, through their use of what the company refers to as a dynamic capacity system.
The company envisions multiple shuttles driving one behind the other in a platoon – for example, five shuttles containing fifteen passengers each.
This configuration offers the same capacity as a mid-size apron bus, with the benefit that airports can use more or fewer shuttles depending on their passenger volumes throughout the day. It would also provide a smoother onboarding experience, improving comfort for passengers by allowing greater control over traffic flow.
Normalisation of driverless vehicles
As such vehicles are increasingly adopted on the airside, does Ohmio predict that it will face challenges surrounding acceptance of driverless shuttles? Ortjens says that many passengers involved in Ohmio trials have reacted to the technology with curiosity and interest.
Although some may be wary when encountering an autonomous vehicle for the first time, he stresses that the shuttles are designed to be conservative and careful, operating more safely than a human driver who may be inclined to take risks.
Ian Pulford, director of Ohmio UK, highlights that the growing normalisation of robots, especially in urban environments, helps many passengers to feel less apprehensive.
“Members of the public are just excited about getting on the shuttle, understanding how it works, and really embracing it,” he says.
“There are also people that you have to really encourage to get on board. This is why we have a safety driver, [alongside ensuring compliance with] UK regulation, but as we move towards the situation where we remove the safety driver and we are then doing everything remotely, I think there will be a chance for people to give their opinion.”
Ensuring return on investment
Indeed, Ohmio is planning to remove safety drivers from its public transport deployments in Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Suffolk, under a government directive that is planned for late 2026 or early 2027. This will require proving that the vehicle operates more safely than a human driver, something that Ohmio is working towards through continued testing.
It is also refining its control room concept and introducing new features to improve passenger experience, particularly when a human driver is not present.
Ortjens points out that an autonomous vehicle will always cost more than one with a driver. However, the company envisions that its customers will receive a return on their investment, with the potential to reduce labour costs in the long-term.
The role of the driver would be transferred to a control room, responsible for monitoring the fleet; one control room employee could observe up to 10 vehicles at a time.
“We are an innovative company,” says Ortjens. “We’re not a start-up, we are scaling. It means that the production costs we have for the vehicles are not far away from the final cost we can achieve when we have serious volume.”
