Skip to main content

Australia to trial autonomous vehicles on public roads

Australia’s Victorian government is to begin a trial to look at how automated vehicles can interact with Australian road infrastructure. VicRoads will work with industry to seek feedback on the government’s Future Directions Paper, which outlines the need for regulatory changes to allow testing of highly automated vehicles on public roads. The consultation will focus on how to ensure road safety during testing on public roads, what constitutes a driver ‘being in control’ and understanding how the changi
December 19, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Australia’s Victorian government is to begin a trial to look at how automated vehicles can interact with Australian road infrastructure. 4728 VicRoads will work with industry to seek feedback on the government’s Future Directions Paper, which outlines the need for regulatory changes to allow testing of highly automated vehicles on public roads.

The consultation will focus on how to ensure road safety during testing on public roads, what constitutes a driver ‘being in control’ and understanding how the changing technology will interact with our transport system.

It will also work to create a framework to allow for a wide range of vehicles to be trialled on Victoria’s roads, potentially including highly automated vehicles, where a driver is not in control of the vehicle.

From early next year, a range of automated vehicles will be trialled on the Monash-Citylink-Tullarmine corridor, in a partnership between the government and 600 Transurban.  The trial will test vehicles currently on the market, to understand how autonomous vehicle technology interacts with road infrastructure including overhead lane signals, electronic speed signs and line marking.

The trial will begin with testing automated vehicles that comply with existing road rules and road safety regulations. A human driver will monitor the vehicle’s operation, ready to take back control at any time.

It will also build on the knowledge gathered through the testing of the 311 Bosch Highly Automated Driving Vehicle unveiled during the 6456 ITS World Congress in October.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Western Australia trials C-ITS technology
    May 26, 2025
    Main Roads WA said city of Perth is ready for connected vehicle technology
  • Getting C/AVs from pipedream to reality
    October 17, 2019
    The UK government has suggested that driverless cars could be on the roads by 2021. But designers and engineers are grappling with a number of difficult issues, muses Chris Hayhurst of MathWorks Earlier this year, the UK government made the bold statement that by 2021, driverless cars will be on the UK’s roads. But is this an achievable reality? Driverless technology already has its use cases on our roads, with levels of autonomy ranked on a scale. At one end of the spectrum, level 1 is defined by th
  • ITS Australia Awards 2024: the winners!
    February 16, 2024
    15th annual ITS Australia Awards in Brisbane reflected end-user safety and industry collaboration
  • Comprehensive communications combats tolling resistance
    May 19, 2017
    Toll road operator must provide clear, comprehensive and consistent communications to user groups and the local community long before the facility opens. When new tolled highway infrastructure is about to go into service, the construction, management and finance specialists who brought it into being are about ready for a well-deserved celebration. But for the communications and outreach team responsible for building public support for the project – for bringing drivers to the road, and keeping partners and