IAG Cargo has completed the first airside trial of a self-driving vehicle at a UK airport.

According to IAG, the trial was carried out in partnership with Oxbotica, an Oxford-based company specializing in self-driving software, and London Heathrow Airport. The trial was designed to help the carrier understand how autonomous vehicles could work in an airside environment.

“Technology is evolving at an incredible pace,” said Lynne Embleton, CEO of IAG Cargo. “We are working with fantastic businesses like Oxbotica to develop new capabilities that will change the way airports function around the world. The trial has yielded valuable insights and is another step in our ongoing commitment to embrace new technologies, improve processes and enhance our offering to our customers.”

The CargoPod vehicle, designed by Oxbotica, spent three and a half weeks running autonomously along a cargo route around the airside perimeter at Heathrow, collecting over 200km of data that will enable IAG and Heathrow to assess potential opportunities for the use of autonomous vehicles in future airport environments.

“We’ve previously trialled autonomous vehicles on public roads but this is the first test of how they could operate airside at an airport,” said Graeme Smith, CEO of Oxbotica. “While there were a huge number of variables to consider including transitioning from indoors to outdoors during each journey, our vision-based localization system performed exceptionally. For us, the trial marks the first step in an ongoing relationship with Heathrow Airport and IAG Cargo.”