Victorian government initiates autonomous trial

The Victorian government announced on Friday a two-year autonomous car trial on Melbourne's CityLink system to evaluate how the leading-edge technology can be supported within the city's road traffic network.

"This technology is moving at a rapid pace, and we want to ensure our roads and the community are ready for these changes," says VicRoads CEO John Merritt.

Registration and licensing authority VicRoads is taking the lead, but RACV and the operator of CityLink, Transurban, are also involved. The trial will be conducted in three phases, with the first due to commence later this year.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla and Volvo will supply the vehicles for the trial, which will assess technology including lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control and traffic sign recognition. All the vehicles will run in standard trim and comply fully with Australian Design Rules. Test drivers will be in control at all times, the government stated in a press release issued last week.

Cars of the future are anticipated to reach level five autonomy, literally driving themselves without anyone on board to override the car. That's presumed to be many years off, although for Transurban that future can't come soon enough.

"Automated vehicles will revolutionise how we move around our communities and deliver safer, smoother traffic flow," says Transurban Group General Manager Strategy Wes Ballantine.

The Victorian government intends to learn from first-hand experience whether CityLink's existing infrastructure provides any challenges to the autonomous technology, which has been developed almost exclusively for international markets without recourse to Australia, although Mercedes-Benz has conducted its own testing in Victoria this year.

Any findings from the trial are expected to have implications for future investment in road network infrastructure, including (electronic and conventional) signage, tunnels, line markings and other forms of traffic management around road works and during peak periods of congestion.

It's not the first official attempt to carry out local testing of autonomous vehicles, and the earliest known attempt was carried out in Adelaide for the benefit of the press nearly two years ago, although that was on a closed section of freeway.

Victoria has a long history as a pioneer introducing road safety measures, and autonomous cars are perceived to be a means of reducing crashes by as much as 90 per cent. That's the figure the state government attributes to human error as the key factor in road trauma.

"Victoria is at the forefront of automated vehicle technology – we're investing in this trial to explore ways that this technology can be used to reduce crashes and keep people safe on our roads," says Luke Donnellan, Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety.