The EU entry-exit system, EES, was supposed to be active across the EU by 9 September. Nine of the 27 member states, including France, have yet to deploy it fully because of continued technical issues.
Getlink has equipped both sides of the Eurotunnel crossing with 120 kiosks so cars can complete passport, fingerprint and facial-image checks without a police officer at every gate.
The two-year trial is meant to ease a process that has long been a logistical nightmare for Eurotunnel and a potential cause of miles-long tailbacks on the approach to the terminal.
Each car will be able to pull up to an individual kiosk. Two stands per vehicle will read passports and take fingerprints and facial images.
The kiosks sit under cameras described as eagle-eye units and monitored by police. The setup is similar to airport e-gates, where officers are not physically present at each gate.
A police officer has been required each time a first-time passenger, known as a"primo", submits fingerprints. That rule was designed as a safeguard against subterfuge.
Getlink had originally planned to hand a tablet to passengers in their cars so they could take their own fingerprints and a facial image.
The reported aim is an airport-style check at a border where passengers do not go through the same process people meet in airports, and where that approach had not been tried before.
"It will prevent the chaos in the long term and the short term and if the experiment works, as hopefully it will, then it will become permanent,"Leriche said.
The trial will last two years. Eurotunnel hopes the experiment will become permanent if it works.