Some travelers leaving their cars in the long-term parking lot at the John F. Kennedy International Airport Tuesday were excited to see a new self-driving shuttle bus roaming the lot.

The autonomous vehicle is transporting travelers from 18 stops around the massive lot to the AirTrain terminals at Howard Beach and Lefferts Boulevard.

What You Need To Know

  • Autonomous shuttles are transporting travelers from the long-term parking lot at JFK to AirTrain terminals at Howard Beach and Lefferts Boulevard

  • The eight-passenger shuttle is programmed to follow a mile-and-a-half-long route around the lot, and uses different technologies to sense any obstacles in its way

  • The pilot program will operate the buses seven days a week for the next three months

“I was like, ‘I gotta see this,’ and today I am flying, and here it is,” traveler Abe Rosenberg said. 

“It’s great. No worries. Technology, right?” Mike Speicher added while waiting for the AirTrain.

Other travelers were a little uneasy not seeing a driver behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

“I don’t know how I would feel being in there. I feel like I would want to take over,” Kamani Marchant said. 

“I don’t even use the cruise control on my car. Surrendering control of a vehicle is a little bit daunting,” added Jimmy Konciljn.

The eight-passenger shuttle is programmed to follow a mile-and-a-half-long route around the lot, and uses different technologies to sense any obstacles in its way.

Seth Wainer is the program director of innovation at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He said this is their fifth initiative with self-driving vehicles, but the first used by the public.

“Really it just works on two principles,” Wainer explained. “One is, the shuttle needs to know where it is, and the shuttle needs to know if there's an object in front of it. So using GPS and a few other technologies, the shuttle knows exactly where it is on a digital map. And then second, it's equipped with lidar, or just light radar, to detect any objects in front of it. If it sees a cone or someone standing in front of it, it'll come to a nice slow stop, just like grandma were driving.”

While in operation, each shuttle will have a safety attendant on board that can switch to manual operation if needed. All safety attendants currently operate as shuttle bus drivers at the airport.

“It’s very smooth, it's innovative, it's new and it's simple and the people will love it,” said Lionel Russel, a bus operator now trained on the self-driving shuttle technology.

The self-driving shuttle service is free. For the next three months, from 8 a.m. to noon seven days a week, two of the vehicles will be circulating around the lot. 

Officials hope to eventually expand the hours of operation.