Skip to main content

Western Australia to trial autonomous vehicle

Western Australia is to trial a driverless and fully electric shuttle bus later this year. Developed by NAVYA SAS, a French company specialising in intelligent transport systems, the shuttle bus can transport up to 15 passengers and has a maximum speed of 45kmh with an average speed of 25kmh Announcing the trial, Transport Minister Dean Nalder said the Department of Transport was working closely with the RAC to ensure compliance with road and vehicle safety standards while they trialled an autonomous sh
February 11, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Western Australia is to trial a driverless and fully electric shuttle bus later this year. Developed by NAVYA SAS, a French company specialising in intelligent transport systems, the shuttle bus can transport up to 15 passengers and has a maximum speed of 45kmh with an average speed of 25kmh
 
Announcing the trial, Transport Minister Dean Nalder said the Department of Transport was working closely with the RAC to ensure compliance with road and vehicle safety standards while they trialled an autonomous shuttle bus.
 
"It is not a matter of if this technology will come to WA, but when it will, and that time is fast approaching.  Initially, the trials will be conducted at RAC's driving centre, but eventually the shuttle will take to Perth roads," Mr Nalder said.
 
The Minister said the Department of Transport was working with the RAC to identify the routes on Perth roads where the trials would take place. These types of vehicles are being tested and trialled in other countries and have autonomous features such as radar cruise control and lane detection warning systems. They also have multi-sensor technology, providing 3D perception that allows it to map the environment, detect obstacles on the road and interpret traffic signs
 
"To ensure we are working towards providing the best integrated and intelligent transport services and solutions for the State, it is important to trial new innovative modes of transport, and this is one of those modes," Nalder said.

Related Content

  • Cognitive Technologies to develop autonomous tram in Russia
    February 14, 2019
    Cognitive Technologies has joined forces with Russian manufacturer PC Transport Systems to deploy an autonomous tram on the streets of Moscow by 2022. Cognitive says that its simplified system means autonomous trams will appear on public roads much earlier than self-driving cars. The company claims its system will detect vehicle and other trams, traffic lights, pedestrians, tram and bus stops, railway and switches and obstacles. Also, the technology will allow the tram to stop in front of obstacles a
  • Autonomous vehicles: threat or opportunity for urban mobility?
    January 17, 2017
    According to a new position paper from the International Association Of Public Transport (UITP), autonomous vehicles (AVs) will lead to a dystopian future of even more private car traffic on the road unless they are put to use in shared fleets and integrated with traditional public transport services. The paper, ‘Autonomous vehicles: a potential game changer for urban mobility,’ indicates that, despite the risk of increased congestion due to car travel becoming even more comfort
  • New opportunities in a data-rich future
    March 19, 2014
    Jason Barnes looks at where the detection and monitoring sector is heading. In the future, there will be no such thing as an un-instrumented road. Just a short time ago, that could have been a quote from a high-level policy document but with the first arrivals of vehicles with 802.11p connectivity – the door-opener to Vehicle-to-X (V2X) applications – it’s a statement which has increasing validity. The technology which uses our roads will also provide information on road conditions but V2X isn’t the only
  • Can AV mapping rely on crowds?
    June 29, 2021
    Mapping tech companies need to expand their data inputs beyond crowdsourcing in order to maintain temporally accurate maps at scale, says Ro Gupta at Carmera