PARIS, May 24 (Reuters) - Airbus is showing off

an unusual vehicle - a truck fitted with basic A350 airliner

controls - that it hopes can demonstrate how automated taxiing

will make airports safer as concern grows over a spate of

jetliners colliding on the ground.

The converted electric truck at VivaTech, Europe's biggest

technology event, can be driven normally, or the aircraft

systems can be given control. Sensors keep track of warning

lines and obstacles as onboard computers guide the vehicle to a

specific location, accelerating and braking as needed.

"These use cases are much more critical and complicated

compared to those of the car industry," said Matthieu Gallas,

head of automation research at Airbus UpNext,the planemaker's

innovation lab. "Copying and pasting technology already

available on the market won't work."

Airbus is at pains to avoid linking the research to specific

accidents, but comparisons with January's fiery Tokyo collision

between a landing A350 and a coast guard plane that appeared to

have strayed onto the runway are inevitable. Airbus declined

comment on the accident, which is being investigated.

A separate investigation was launched last month after the

wingtip of an empty Virgin Atlantic jet collided with a

stationary British Airways jet. In February, U.S. regulators

said they would look into a collision between two JetBlue ( JBLU ) planes

at Boston Logan.

Airbus hopes the vehicle crawling through a side alley of

the Paris exhibition centre hosting the tech billionaires and

startups of VivaTech shows how automation can help safely

squeeze $100-million-plus jets through increasingly congested

airports.

LIDAR HOPES

Slow-speed ramp incidents are rarely fatal but represent a

costly and growing headache for airlines, airports, insurers and

passengers caught up in resulting delays.

Airbus UpNext said it had teamed up with Israeli electric

vehicle maker Ree Automotive ( REE ) to build the hybrid

research platform as part of its three-year "Optimate" project.

The plane-truck will be tested at live airports and could

pave the way for later tests on an A350-1000 aircraft.

If successful, the project could result in changes to plane

design, but getting novel systems certified is a daunting task.

Regardless of what happens, pilots will remain in the loop,

Gallas said. Airbus jets already use automation to limit pilot

error, though the software is not autonomous, meaning it can

only behave in a predictable way.

Equipped with 3D-mapping LiDAR light sensors, the research

vehicle could explore higher levels of automation later, though

Airbus says it has no plans to introduce autonomy in jetliners.

The potential for LiDAR is already in the spotlight after

severe turbulence battered a Singapore jet this week, leaving

one passenger dead of a suspected heart attack and dozens

injured. Boeing ( BA ) began tests in 2018 and experts hope LiDAR will

track unstable currents that elude radar.

"LiDAR is 'the' technology," ex-auto executive Karim

Mokaddem, head of Airbus commercial research and technology,

told Reuters.