Artificial intelligence is at the heart of autonomous vehicles, and while we still tend to think of self-driving cars as a far-horizon innovation, there are already operational fleets serving the public in San Francisco and Phoenix. Autonomous vehicles are also the single biggest future disruptor to contemporary airport operations, for two big reasons. First, they’ll erode parking-garage revenues as these fleets begin taking more and more passengers to the airport. Second, autonomous vehicles are secure and surveilled. For the purposes of fleet operations, this means riders are authenticated as they access the vehicle and the vehicle itself is outfitted with cameras and microphones for monitoring and communicating with riders as needed. Those built-in characteristics make autonomous vehicles a logical way for security screening to occur en route to the airport, either through TSA agents interacting with the passengers remotely or potentially even AI agents with a purely digital presence inside the vehicle. In other words, autonomous vehicles are next-generation, AI-powered TSA checkpoints.
The prospect of en route TSA screening onboard autonomous vehicles presents some interesting operational possibilities for airports and airlines. If passengers are screened while they’re headed to the airport, then they’ll need to arrive on the airside of an airport since that’s the post-screening “secure” side. There are two potential airside destinations, and both could be used simultaneously. One is inside at the concourses and gates, and the other is directly to the aircraft. Airport retailers and restaurateurs will be pleased by the former and distressed by the latter. With both, though, airports will have new opportunities to reallocate space for different functions within their physical footprints.
