Skip to main content

Consortium to trial autonomous shuttles at Australian university

A consortium including HMI Technologies, La Trobe University, Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV), Australian Road Research Group (ARRB) and Keolis Downer is to conduct a trial of autonomous vehicles in Victoria, Australia to explore the use of driverless shuttles in the context of a university’s student mobility requirements.
June 8, 2017 Read time: 1 min

A consortium including 8502 HMI Technologies, La Trobe University, Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV), Australian Road Research Group (ARRB) and 6546 Keolis Downer is to conduct a trial of autonomous vehicles in Victoria, Australia to explore the use of driverless shuttles in the context of a university’s student mobility requirements.

This is the first time such a project has been launched as a proof of concept to address first and last mile connectivity requirements.
 
The project, which has been partly funded through a US$283,000 (AU$375,000) Victorian Government Smarter Journeys Programme grant, will start in August 2017 and last for one year.

The project aims to explore, through a model deployment in real operating conditions, the use of autonomous vehicles to create a re-usable commercial framework to support development of the necessary regulation and/or legislation.

8502 HMI Technologies is supplying a French-built Navya 15-person shuttle for the trial. This vehicle is fully autonomous (level 4), has no steering wheel and is electrically powered.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • RAC to launch driverless on-demand vehicles in Perth, Western Australia
    September 21, 2018
    RAC has accepted the delivery of a driverless car from Navya which will serve as part of a shared mobility service in Perth, Western Australia. The company says it intends to use the on-demand service to gain a better understanding of the technology and to develop a roadmap for the safe transition to driverless vehicles. RAC works with government and other organisations to ensure its members and the community can move around more sustainably. Terry Agnew, CEO of RAC, says human error is the cause of mos
  • South Australian Transport Minister gets to grips with UK driverless initiatives
    August 19, 2016
    South Australian Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Stephen Mullighan MP, has shown his support for the UK’s driverless initiatives during a visit to the Transport Research Laboratory’s (TRL’s) UK Smart Mobility Living Lab @ Greenwich. The visit was arranged to enable the South Australian Minister to learn more about UK innovations in connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). The Minister was given presentations on several UK CAV projects, including GATEway, MOVE_UK and Atlas, followed by a live demon
  • CityMobil2 selects first seven sites
    May 7, 2014
    The European project CityMobil2 has selected the first round of sites to run demonstrations and showcases of automated road transport systems, which are made up of vehicles operating without a driver in collective mode, under the control of a fleet and infrastructure supervision system.
  • Nominet to provide secure data exchange for autonomous vehicles
    April 24, 2017
    Nominet, the Oxford-based internet company responsible for the smooth and secure running of the .UK internet, has announced its involvement in driverless car trials between London and Oxford. The project, run by the DRIVEN consortium and led by Oxbotica, is one of the first trials of Level 4 autonomous vehicles in the UK, where the driver does not need to watch the road or hold the steering wheel. The trial explores the real-time assessment frameworks essential for the legal and safe use of automated vehic