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

  • Germany is Mad for Vitronic
    April 30, 2025
    Managed Automated Driving project takes place in German city of Brunswick
  • Spot speed deterrent proved to be transient
    October 18, 2013
    As research and trials show the benefits of average speed enforcement - David Crawford reviews developments on two continents. August 2013 saw the switch on of the Australian State of Victoria’s latest combined point-to-point (P2P) average speed enforcement (ASE) and spot camera control system. Installed on the 27km Peninsula Link to the south-east of Melbourne, the system uses high-resolution automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and optical character recognition (OCR) technology developed b
  • Cavnue appoints first chief executive
    September 30, 2020
    Transport policy veteran Tyler Duvall served in the George W. Bush administration
  • Keolis to operate French Riviera Urban Community transport
    June 25, 2019
    Keolis is to operate and maintain the French Riviera Urban Community’s public transport network ‘Zest’, in a deal expected to generate a total revenue of €60 million. Keolis is seeking to improve the transport network across 15 cities and villages of the community located along the Mediterranean coastline in southeast France. The company will also roll out digital services such as Wi-Fi in all buses. From 8 July, the company’s subsidiary Keolis Menton Riviera will start running regular and extracurri