EastLink trials hands-free driving through its tunnels

EastLink (EL) has conducted a hands-free driving demonstration through its freeway tunnels using Honda Civic VTi-LX’s lane keep assist function. The trial, closed to traffic, aimed to help Victorian motorists understand the technology and other driver assistance functions after the Annual Victorian Self-Driving Survey revealed more than half of the 15,000 of the respondents had very little or no awareness of self-driving cars.
December 4, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
EastLink (EL) has conducted a hands-free driving demonstration through its freeway tunnels using 1683 Honda Civic 5230 VTi-LX’s lane keep assist function. The trial, closed to traffic, aimed to help Victorian motorists understand the technology and other driver assistance functions after the Annual Victorian Self-Driving Survey revealed more than half of the 15,000 respondents had very little or no awareness of self-driving cars.

EL chose the Honda following recent trials in which it tested automated vehicle technologies alongside partners 4728 VicRoads, the Australian Road Research Board, La Trobe University and RACV.

The Honda Civic VTi-LX is available for less than $40,000 (£29,000) and includes the Honda Sensing package. It has a range of driver assistance functions such as lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow, collision mitigation braking, forward collision warning, lane departure warning and road departure mitigation.

The demonstration will be broadcast in a television news report by 7 News Melbourne at 6pm on Monday 4 December.
Doug Spencer-Roy, EL, corporate affairs and marketing manager, said: “The Honda Civic steered itself using lane keep assist mode along EastLink and through the EastLink tunnels at speeds up to 80km/h, while the driver was not holding the steering wheel.


The Honda Civic lane keep assist function was not affected by changing light conditions during the demonstration, such as the transitions into and out of each tunnel portal.”

“The demonstration showed that driver assistance functions in cars are rapidly increasing in quality and availability, which is paving the way for motorists to experience hands-free driving on freeways in the coming years (subject to legislative changes),” Roy added.

Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • “Chaotic” roads will stall self-driving cars
    July 31, 2014
    The Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) has responded to the UK government’s announcement giving driverless cars the go-ahead on UK roads, saying that it points to an exciting future, but hampered at the outset by the daily routine of road works, potholes, worn road markings, burst mains and failed traffic lights. “By 2025, at least half the travel on Europe’s roads will be in vehicles that can read the road ahead including markings and signs. But vehicles, like drivers, cannot function if basic road
    Read More
  • Monitoring, detection and control systems inside tunnels can do much to improve traveller safety
    August 6, 2013
    ITS technology can do a great deal to improve tunnel safety, as Colin Sowman discovers. It was back in April 2004 that the European Parliament adopted the EU Directive which lays down the Minimum Safety Requirements for Tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network (2004/54/EC). This was the first unitary legislation setting minimum safety standards for European road tunnels and was designed to harmonise the management of tunnel safety at a national level. Operators of existing tunnels have until 30 April 201
    Read More
  • Lagos would welcome careful drivers
    June 30, 2020
    An index has revealed the most dangerous parts of the world for car crashes, with cities in Africa, the US, India and Russia particularly challenging – although the rest of us might head to Calgary in Canada.
    Read More
  • Call for new standard for parking space sizes
    February 6, 2015
    YourParkingSpace.co.uk, the UK’s car parking marketplace, is calling for the introduction of SizeMark; a new parking industry standard designed to ensure that car parking spaces are large enough to accommodate modern motor vehicles. The move is needed, it claims, after research showed that while parking spaces have remained approximately the same size over the last 60 years, some vehicle models have grown by more than 20 per cent in width. Backed up by a recent survey by the AA, the result revealed that
    Read More

Highlighted Content