Self-driving cars here this year

Driverless cars will be tested on Australian roads for the first time in November, when the country's first autonomous vehicle trial takes place in Adelaide.

The Australian-first automated vehicle trial will coincide with a Driverless Vehicle Conference supported and hosted by the South Australian government over November 5-6.

The country's first self-driving vehicle demonstration, which will be carried out on sections of the Southern Expressway, Adelaide Airport and at Tonsley Innovation Park, will be part of the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative established by national independent road research agency, ARRB Group.

"By applying international research to the local road environment, the partner organisations will together seek to understand what is required to make driverless technology appropriate for Australian roads and safe for road users," said ARRB in a press release today.

ARRB says it is supporting governments to bring together leading local and international autonomous vehicle experts from industry and academia, including technology partners Telstra and Bosch, and automotive partner Volvo.

ARRB Group Managing Director Gerard Waldron said automated vehicles are far from science fiction, but rather a short-term reality that Australia needs to be prepared for.

“The advent of driverless cars is an opportunity to foster technological innovation and revive Australia’s manufacturing industry – the South Australian government has been quick to recognise this,” he said.

“ARRB will establish how driverless technology needs to be manufactured and introduced for uniquely Australian driving behaviour, our climate and road conditions, including what this means for Australia’s national road infrastructure, markings, surfaces and roadside signage."

Waldron said the trials in South Australia this November will be the first of many trials nationally, with discussions underway in a number of jurisdictions. ARRB is calling for additional states, territories and partners to support its initiative.

“Driverless cars have a range of benefits that could significantly improve road safety and the quality of life of everyday Australians, add to the nation’s economic competitiveness and help relieve rapidly growing congestion that is crippling our infrastructure and creating productivity deficits in our capital cities.

“We’re seeking technology and automotive industry partners to assist us in Australia’s driverless vehicle innovation,” said Waldron.

ARRB says the initiative will put Australia on the map alongside the UK, the US and Sweden as an international leader in automated vehicle research.

Meantime, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said the driverless vehicle industry will be worth more than $90 billion internationally by 2030.

"This trial presents a fantastic opportunity for South Australia to take a lead nationally and internationally in the development of this new technology and open up new opportunities for our economy," he said.

Bosch said the test will put its autonomous vehicle systems to good use.

“We’re excited to be a part of the ARRB Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative and anticipate that this will be a major step forward in advancing Bosch automated driving technologies in Australia for now and into the future," said Mark Jackman, Regional President of Vehicle Safety Systems at Robert Bosch Australia.

For its part, Volvo Car Australia will provide an all-new XC90 that will be specially programmed to allow its IntelliSafe Assist functions (Adaptive Cruise Control including Pilot Assist, Lane Keeping Aid, Distance Alert and Speed Limiter Function) to be operated hands-free within a controlled environment.

One of Volvo’s top international safety experts, Dr Trent Victor, will be a keynote speaker at the Driverless Vehicle Conference and will assist with the trials. Dr Victor, who is Volvo’s Senior Technical Leader Crash Avoidance, is an internationally recognised safety and crash expert.

Volvo is a global leader in developing autonomous drive technology and will have more than 100 autonomous cars on the road in Sweden by 2017, while Dr Victor has filed more than 20 patents and published over 60 papers in the past 20 years, while applying behavioural science data to crash avoidance innovation.

"As a leader in the development of autonomous drive technologies, Volvo’s aim is to make this technology realistically available for customers in production cars in the near future," said Kevin McCann, Managing Director of Volvo Car Australia.

“Volvo believes autonomous drive technology will deliver significant consumer and societal benefits, including improved traffic safety, improved fuel economy, reduced congestion, and the opportunity for improved infrastructure planning.

“We are delighted to be involved with the ARRB demonstration and conference in South Australia, where we believe Volvo Car Australia can make a positive and significant contribution.”

Other partners supporting ARRB’s Driverless Vehicles Initiative include the RAA, Adelaide Airport Limited, Flinders University, Carnegie Mellon University and Cohda Wireless.

Driverless vehicle technology already exists in a wide range of luxury and even mainstream models in the form of automatic emergency braking, lane keeping, cruise control and blind-spot and rear cross-traffic detection.

All major car-makers are currently investing heavily in autonomous vehicle technology, which is widely regarded as key to the next step change in automotive safety, with many committed to offering fully autonomous production vehicles this decade.

As we reported recently, one US consulting group believes self-driving cars will be widespread on crowded city streets by 2022 and that the concept could grow into a $US42 billion market as soon as 2025. It said driverless cars could account for as much as a quarter of worldwide sales by 2035.

However, fully autonomous vehicle technology must first overcome legal hurdles that currently require vehicles to be directly controlled by a human operator in all Australian states – except South Australia, which announced new laws in February that make such systems legal on public roads in the state.

For example, BMW's new 7 Series limousine will not be made available in Australia with its new self-parking technology from launch, because of local 'driver in control' laws that currently place liability firmly at the driver's feet in the event of an accident.

For similar reasons that the artificial intelligence technology used to power 'robot soldiers' is controversial, autonomous vehicles could face potential ethical problems when forced to make decisions in the event of an unavoidable collision.