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.

Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Consumer Watchdog calls for stricter safety standards for autonomous cars
    October 20, 2016
    The US Consumer Watchdog is calling on the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to prohibit autonomous vehicles without a human driver capable of taking control until the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) enacts enforceable standards covering the safety performance of robot cars. NHTSA has proposed a voluntary safety checklist that contains no enforceable standards. The proposed DMV rules would require manufacturers to submit that federal checklist before testing or deployin
    Read More
  • Flexible, cost efficient bus trailers adapt to passenger demand
    January 25, 2012
    The cost, environmental and other benefits of the bus trailer concept are obvious. Used in several areas of Germany, as well as Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, vehicle sizes can be adapted to passenger demand. The Ruebenacker group, a public transport provider in the Black Forest region of Germany, is one of more than 20 bus operators in the country that have deployed bus trailers, also referred to as bus trains. The company owns 81 buses and transports nearly six million passengers a year in the Blac
    Read More
  • Time for a rethink on road user charging
    February 1, 2012
    There is no value in further US VMT charging trials, except to delay the inevitable. These trials should end after completion of the University of Iowa's National Evaluation of a Mileage-based Road User Charge. There is far greater promise in unleashing private operators to commence profitable, non-tolling services, then using these for toll assessment and collection as fuel distributors are currently used to collect fuel taxation. Bern Grush writes
    Read More
  • Refurbishing ageing VMS with new technology
    January 26, 2012
    Virginia DoT faced a challenge common to many highway authorities around the world: the need, in economically challenging times, to replace ageing variable message signs reaching the end of their operational life. For some 25 years now, since the mid 80s, Virginia Department of Transportation (VDoT), has deployed variable message signs (VMS) as part of its motorist information systems. Throughout the state there are still many old 'flip-disk' signs. Some of the companies that provided these electronic messa
    Read More

Highlighted Content