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Newark Liberty International Airport is getting a glimpse of the future of travel and it involves driverless buses quietly looping around the tarmac.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced plans to test electric autonomous shuttle vehicles at EWR throughout spring 2026, the agency’s latest experiment with self-driving technology as the airport undergoes a sweeping redevelopment. The tests, which won’t be open to the public, are intended to explore whether automated transit could eventually move passengers between airport facilities and the new AirTrain Newark system currently under construction.
Three companies—Oceaneering, Ohmio and Glydways—will each run two-week trials in a restricted area of the airport. The vehicles will all operate simultaneously to mimic the kind of high-capacity shuttle network needed to navigate a busy airport environment. Port Authority officials say the demonstrations are meant to inform a future request for proposals that could be issued as early as next year.
The autonomous shuttles are being evaluated as one potential solution during the multi-year rebuild of Newark Liberty, which includes a brand-new Terminal B and a $3.5 billion replacement of the airport’s aging AirTrain. The new AirTrain is set to open in 2030 and is being designed with future growth in mind as passenger traffic continues to climb—nearly 50 million travelers passed through EWR in 2024, compared with about 30 million when the current AirTrain debuted in the mid-’90s.
“We have been working with self-driving technology successfully for many years, particularly at the airports, and believe autonomous shuttles offer a safe, efficient solution for moving passengers while we concurrently work to build a new AirTrain Newark and the brand-new Terminal B,” said Port Authority chairman Kevin O’Toole.
In 2024, members of the public were able to ride in autonomous vehicles at JFK Airport’s long-term parking lot and earlier tests explored platooning (where multiple driverless vehicles move in sync) at the Aqueduct Parking Lot. Newark Liberty also hosted earlier self-driving shuttle experiments in 2023 and 2024, while autonomous bus technology has been tested in the Lincoln Tunnel’s Exclusive Bus Lane since 2022.
While the agency says autonomous vehicles could eventually offer safer, more efficient and potentially more cost-effective connections than traditional buses, electric buses remain part of the broader evaluation. For now, the spring trials are less about replacing drivers overnight and more about figuring out how automation could fit into an airport designed for the next generation of travel.
If the experiments succeed, the most futuristic part of your next Newark Liberty journey might not be the flight—it could be the ride between terminals.