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

  • Siemens: self-driving minibuses are the future of first-/last-mile
    February 26, 2020
    Markus Schlitt, CEO of intelligent traffic systems at Siemens Mobility, talks to ITS International about safety and why it is important for cities to offer additional shared and connected transit options.
    Read More
  • Joined-up thinking for future ITS
    May 8, 2015
    David Crawford looks at a US model which, for modest federal funding, is producing substantive results. Outward and upward is the clear message emerging from the US$458,000, 2015 workplan of the US government’s ENTERPRISE (Evaluating New TEchnologies for Roads PRogram Initiatives in Safety and Efficiency) joint funding scheme for ITS research.
    Read More
  • UWA trials EasyMile's autonomous bus on campus
    August 14, 2018
    Visitors at the University of Western Australia (UWA) can now travel around the campus on an EasyMile autonomous bus. The partnership has launched a nine-day project to assess the possibility of using this type of technology as an on-site sustainable transport link. The bus will travel at 5Kmh with a trained observer onboard who will oversee the technology and answer questions. The vehicle can carry up to 14 passengers and uses telecommunication company Telstra's mobile network for navigation. Membe
    Read More
  • Toward a driverless future
    December 11, 2015
    On 10 December, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, took a part in the presentation of a fully autonomous car at Munich airport. The event was designed to highlight the role that driverless cars could play in enabling safer and more efficient vehicles, while also addressing legislative and consumer challenges posed by this new technology. The event coincided with the launch of the new European Commission high level group for the automotive
    Read More

Highlighted Content