Page 2843 - Week 10 - Thursday, 7 October 2021
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approach to policy, regulation and investment decision-making for technologies in the land transport sector. Underpinning this framework is the recent National Land Transport Technology Action Plan 2020-2023.
This action plan builds on work from the 2016-19 action plan and includes new work over the next three years on safety, security and privacy; digital and physical infrastructure; data requirements; standards and interoperability; and positioning for disruption and change.
This work is being led by the National Transport Commission, which is the national body responsible for land transport reform in Australia. The government will be considering in closer detail what activities are to progress under the National Land Transport Technology Action Plan over the next three years.
The last stream of work is the Austroads connected and automated vehicle program, which includes the trial of automated vehicles and intelligent transport systems. This program brings together trials of vehicle technology, intelligent transport systems and infrastructure from around Australia. The ACT’s CANdrive project, as well as trials conducted in partnership with EasyMile in City Walk and Belconnen, are a part of this project. It is worth noting that this national program is dynamic, in recognition of the constantly evolving automated vehicle environment.
I would now like to turn to some of the actions the ACT government has already taken to prepare for the introduction of automated vehicles to the territory. The ACT government and Canberra community have a track record of embracing new technologies, and the ACT government has supported and partnered in several trials of automated vehicles.
In 2017 we partnered with vehicle technology company EasyMile to test a driverless shuttle bus in Canberra’s City Walk. In 2018 the ACT government supported the CANdrive project undertaken by local technology company Seeing Machines. Using Seeing Machines driver monitoring technology, this trial has been helping us to understand how humans are going to interact with semi-automated vehicles in a real-world situation.
With the increase in automation, the role of the driver will change. For example, level 2 automated vehicles are already registered for use on Australian roads, but the driver is legally in control of the car. CANdrive has helped us understand when and why, from both a safety and a regulatory perspective, a driver should be in control, rather than the automated vehicle being in control, and help to manage the transition from one to the other with reduced risk.
In 2019 we again partnered with EasyMile to test a driverless shuttle bus, this time on a publicly accessible private road at IRT Kangara Waters Retirement Village in Belconnen. This trial followed a set route to transport residents and visitors around the village.
These successful trials, taken together with similar trials conducted around Australia and internationally, demonstrate proof of concept that automated vehicles have the
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