COVENTRY, England (Reuters) – UK auto supplier Aurrigo International Plc made a conscious decision nearly a decade ago to develop slow-moving autonomous vehicles (AVs) with a purpose to conserve money, which has led to a concentrate on automating baggage dollies for loading planes at airports.
“We selected day one we couldn’t make something that might travel at 70 miles an hour and go all over the place,” said David Keene, chief executive of Aurrigo, which is predicated in Coventry, a part of England’s automotive heartland. “We just did not have the capital because we thought that might take billions.”
Aurrigo has a standard auto business providing the whole lot from wiring systems and center consoles to exterior trim or key fobs to Volkswagen AG luxury unit Bentley, Tata unit Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin. Those vehicles are at the other end of the spectrum from Aurrigo’s AVs, which in some cases travel at “only just above walking speed,” Keene said.
Aurrigo has developed a four-seater “auto pod” with no steering wheel or pedals for slow non-road routes corresponding to on university campuses.
The corporate has also designed the “Auto-Dolly” and “Auto-DollyTug” for airports and is working with Singapore’s Changi Airport, its lead customer, to automate baggage handling.
Each dolly can carry a standardized container holding about 40 bags and Aurrigo is doing tests unloading and loading a dummy plane at its own fenced-off gate at Changi.
By the tip of 2023, the dollies will likely be assigned an actual plane to load and unload, adding more planes in 2024 and 2025. By 2027, Keene said AVs will handle baggage at an entire terminal and all of Changi’s planes will likely be loaded and unloaded by AVs by the tip of the last decade.
AV startups have struggled with developing truly self-driving vehicles for the roads because such vehicles cannot react as quickly as humans to unexpected events. Consequently, investors have soured on a lot of them.
But Aurrigo’s CEO said airports provide the right environment because all vehicles travel at low speeds.
“All the pieces is extremely regulated so exactly where the vehicles can go and where they can not go,” Keene said. “For the technology maturity right away, it’s a spot where you possibly can operate AVs; whereas out on the road it is a bit just like the Wild West.”
Aurrigo is currently talking to 80 airports about following Changi’s lead and Keene said the standard airport will need between 300 and 500 dollies.
Aurrigo went public last September to assist fund its shift into the aviation industry and its stock is up 30% over its debut.
The IPO raised only 8 million kilos ($10 million), but Keene said that ought to pay for the rollout of airport dolly AVs.
“We have got the credibility now and if we want extra capital or we land more contracts, then we’re in a fantastic position to return and say we want to boost more cash,” he said.
(Reporting by Nick Carey in Coventry, England; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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