Miami-Dade County is one step closer to making history as the first county in the nation to implement autonomous work vehicles, following a live demonstration at Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport.

Ralph Cutié, director and CEO of Miami International Airport, hosted the live demonstration Tuesday in which he showcased the culmination of several months of collaboration with Honda, as work vehicles clipped grass and sprayed pesticide without a driver at a wheel, operating instead on a pre-programmed course.

“A lot of us grew up watching science fiction, and today you’re going to see science fiction turned into reality right here,” said Mr. Cutié. “In addition to these prototypes being extremely cool, they are the latest way that we are going to be innovating our airport, increasing efficiency, reducing cost, and creating a more future-ready Miami International Airport.”

This pilot program has been literally in the works since last September. Over the past three months, these vehicles have been at work mowing grass and spraying pesticide at both Miami International Airport and Homestead General Aviation Airport for six hours a day, four days a week.

“This technology has enormous potential, not only for simplifying the maintenance of large open spaces at the airport, but for the county in general,” said Mr. Cutié.

He emphasized that the use of this technology would not result in any workers losing jobs, but that it would allow them to perform more necessary tasks, such as repairs, maintenance, and other jobs that require a human touch.

“The purpose of these machines is to not take away jobs, it’s to augment jobs. It’s to let the human focus on the things that only a human can do, by enabling machines to do things that we can’t find enough people to do. We’ve learned a lot from this demonstration and from this project,” said Jay Joseph, vice president of sustainability and business development at Honda. According to Ayako Tanaka, marketing lead and business development specialist of autonomous work vehicles (AWVs) at Honda, these vehicles are multipurpose, fully electric, and can run eight to 10 hours, in the case of large vehicles, and four to five hours for smaller ones.

Operators can map out and program the routes these vehicles follow, which would then enable them to run by themselves.

The vehicles are also multifunctional and can be equipped for any number of tasks, which Mr. Cutié said would allow for greater use throughout the county, such as with the Department of Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces.

“AWVs are autonomous, but not self-driving, so they will not scare people with unexpected behavior,” said Ms. Tanaka.

The vehicles also come equipped with sensor bars that detect people and stop in their tracks before it can hit them.

Both Mr. Cutié and Mr. Joseph credited Maurice Jenkins, head of the airport’s innovation division, with leading the initiative to undertake this program, having been the one to establish the partnership with Mr. Joseph and Honda and to recognize the value of this emergent technology.

“You can’t really put a value on what we can do for enhancing the operational efficiencies of our airport,” Mr. Jenkins said. “My driving factor is, if I’m looking at technology and innovation, if I can enhance the experience, improve operational efficiency and also drive revenue opportunities, that’s where innovation comes into play. We put a lot of time and energy in regards to myself and my team working with Honda, spending numerous hours – 12- to 18-hour days – working on how to best optimize these solutions. This is new emergent technology, so it has to be scalable.”

According to Mr. Jenkins, these autonomous vehicles are capable of handling not only grounds maintenance such as watering and fertilizing, but even functioning as security and inspection tools at the same time.

According to Mr. Joseph, Honda invested the funds for the pilot program. He declined to disclose the total cost.

With a successful pilot program, the next step for the airport’s innovation division is to present a status report to the airport’s executive board, which would decide whether to expand the program, as well as working with stakeholders, including employees and labor unions, to best implement this technology in the long run.

“I look at this as being a long-term success,” said Mr. Jenkins, “but there’s a long-term vision that goes along with it.”

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