DHL has completed its first deployment of an autonomous vehicle in live airport traffic at Heathrow, safely completing 1,300km of autonomous driving in 14 days with an Oxa AV.
The project builds on DHL’s partnership with Heathrow, through which the business has provided baggage logistics and support services since 2020. By leveraging autonomous vehicles and AI tech, the project will assist the aviation industry in fast tracking sustainable and scalable logistics solutions.
DHL’s current baggage transfer service sees over 60,000 passenger bags moved each month between Heathrow terminals. The goal of the project is to meet this need autonomously.
Prior to the deployment, the autonomous vehicle, which runs on Oxa’s self-driving software, undertook a series of installation exercises ensuring safety and enabling the vehicle to integrate into the complex airside environment. The vehicle operated autonomously on the first day of the project, requiring no specialist modifications. Its performance was continually refined in the two-week period, resulting in all performance and safety benchmarks being met.
This initial project was conducted using a passenger vehicle, to demonstrate the capabilities, with the goal being to ultimately use AVs for baggage transfer – including electric vans and tow tractors.
Gavin Payne, director of engineering and baggage, Heathrow, said, “It was great to be able to support and join DHL, Oxa and the Heathrow team in achieving the first safe and significant step toward this vision. Working within the Baggage Strategic Partnership in this way is critical to our innovation journey and I am excited to see what comes next.”
Dan Peacock, managing director, DHL Supply Chain, said, “Our priority is to deliver an exceptional service to our customers that meets their unique needs, and this project supports Heathrow by modeling an innovative solution which could really help drive capacity safely and sustainably.”
Gavin Jackson, CEO, Oxa, commented, “We are delighted to partner with DHL in order to support the use of autonomous vehicles within airside operations at Heathrow and around the world – working towards fully automated airside logistics at scale.”