Skip to main content

Eastlink launches annual self-driving vehicle survey

The first major survey of motorists’ attitudes to self-driving vehicles is now underway in Victoria, Australia on the privately-owned Eastlink freeway, a north-south transport artery in the east of Melbourne. Self-driving vehicle technologies such as highway autopilot are increasingly offered by the latest production vehicles in Australia. Further advances will continue to occur, with hands-off-the-wheel driving on EastLink and other suitable freeways expected within the next few years, subject to legisl
September 12, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The first major survey of motorists’ attitudes to self-driving vehicles is now underway in Victoria, Australia on the privately-owned Eastlink freeway, a north-south transport artery in the east of Melbourne.


Self-driving vehicle technologies such as highway autopilot are increasingly offered by the latest production vehicles in Australia. Further advances will continue to occur, with hands-off-the-wheel driving on EastLink and other suitable freeways expected within the next few years, subject to legislative changes.

EastLink is already involved in trials of the latest vehicles to identify opportunities to improve the compatibility between the latest self-driving vehicle technologies and freeway infrastructure.

To complement these technical trials, EastLink with support from the Australian Road Research Board, has launched the Annual Victorian Self-Driving Vehicle Survey, the first major survey of Victorian motorists’ perceptions of, and attitudes to, self-driving vehicles.

The 2017 survey will identify a baseline for motorists’ perceptions and attitudes. EastLink will then repeat the survey annually to track changes into the future.

Related Content

  • Econolite expands partnership with TrafficCast
    May 16, 2012
    Econolite has expanded its partnership with TrafficCast International and will integrate real time data from the TrafficCast BlueToad travel time module into its Centracs Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS).
  • Include ITS in policy decisions from the start, not as an afterthought
    February 1, 2012
    DG TREN's Fotis Karamitsos, on why the European Commission's new ITS Action Plan is looking to the past for future direction. The European Commission's (EC's) new Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe, which was announced as 2008 drew to a close, intends that transport and travel become 'cleaner; more efficient, including energy efficient; and safer and more secure'. At first sight, that wording might be interpreted as marking a significant policy shift within Europe, wit
  • Will interoperability prevent progress?
    January 10, 2014
    David Crawford examines the political and industrial background to the tolling technology debate. Saving the US State of California ‘millions of dollars’ in tolling infrastructure costs by encouraging new technologies is the professed aim of a legislative Bill, SB 242, which is currently moving through the State’s Senate (upper house) process. According to its sponsor, Republican State Senator Mark Wyland, permitting alternatives to the current FasTrak-branded radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based sys
  • Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    October 29, 2015
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.