Airbus completes autonomous taxi trials on an A350 at Paris CDG
A three-year research project concluded with 30 flight test hours evaluating automatic ground navigation and obstacle detection on an A350 at Paris Charles de Gaulle.
Airbus has finalized a three-year evaluation campaign dedicated to autonomous ground operations, concluding with 30 hours of taxi trials on an A350 at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in July 2026.
Named Optimate, the demonstrator relies on a sensor suite combining cameras, radar, lidar, and positioning systems to scan airport surroundings. Flight crews enter a destination point through the cockpit interface, allowing the system to compute the taxi route, steer ground movements, detect obstacles, and stop autonomously if required. Pilots can take back manual control at any stage.
Launched in late 2023 and unveiled in May 2024, the Optimate project previously accumulated roughly 1,500 simulation hours alongside 500 hours of ground trials using an electric truck fitted with an experimental A350 cockpit.
While Airbus previously explored autonomous taxi, takeoff, and landing capabilities under the ATTOL initiative in 2020, followed by emergency diversion and landing evaluations on an A350-1000 with the DragonFly demonstrator in January 2023, Optimate focuses specifically on taxiway navigation and runway incursion risk mitigation. The airframer has not set a certification timeline nor confirmed plans to field the system on series production aircraft.
Why it matters for your training
Autonomous taxiing systems could significantly lower crew workload and reduce runway incursion risks during complex ground routing in low-visibility or high-density airport environments.
Sources
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