Airports and Self-Driving Vehicles

From ENR:

"The increasing connectivity of devices and sensing systems, movement analytics and heat maps will influence airport asset maintenance, said Manik Arora, president and CEO of Arora Engineers, speaking on one of the many technology panels. Airports also are experimenting with facial recognition technologies to improve passenger flows and security.

Aviation-sector veterans cited driverless vehicles as perhaps the biggest game-changer ahead. “Of all the emerging technologies, the advent of autonomous vehicles … will have sustained impact on airport operations and finances,” says Allan Shapiro, senior management consultant at Ross & Baruzzini. “Airports will have to take into consideration the impact of passengers using autonomous vehicles to access and depart them,” he adds. “Driverless cars will impact major sources of revenue that airports once received from parking, car rental operations and taxis, as well as terminal curb-frontage management.” Driverless vehicles could spur the construction of remote smart garages in which the vehicles could park between trips, Shapiro notes.

Adds Siwinski, “Autonomous vehicles will be twice as disruptive as Uber.”"