Page 104 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016
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Australia’s population densities are perfectly suited … and one city in particular that stands out is Canberra.
As a small jurisdiction with a good road network and a dispersed population, we will be a beneficiary of this technology, and the Canberra Liberals want to get on board. Rather than committing to fixed tram infrastructure that will service only a small portion of the population at slower speeds than current buses, we want to truly embrace the future of transport.
Autonomous vehicles are currently being developed by the world’s largest automobile manufacturers, including Tesla, Audi, General Motors, Ford, Hyundai and Volvo, to name a few. Mercedes-Benz is also developing an autonomous vehicle, with a new E-class model to be released next year that can speed up, change lanes and overtake at the press of a button. Tesla and Nissan are confident of releasing an autonomous vehicle in the next five years. Google, the search engine giant, is also working on an autonomous vehicle, whilst Apple is rumoured to be working on some form of vehicle too.
Here in Canberra we have companies such as Seeing Machines which are at the cutting edge of this technology. Through their work in the mining industry, with automobiles and in other fields, the work they are doing to make vehicles safer and more efficient is truly extraordinary and should be celebrated. But beyond the celebration we should be harnessing their work. That is why the Canberra Liberals want to be at the forefront of this advancement. We want Canberra to be open for business. We want to be able to say to the world’s vehicle manufacturers and associated industries that Canberra wants your skills, technology and investment.
Further to this, Canberrans such as Kent Fitch have investigated in considerable depth the benefits of autonomous vehicles to Canberra. I encourage members to visit his website at projectcomputing.com.au to explore exactly what autonomous vehicles will mean for Canberra and the extraordinary optimisation we as a community can realise.
I also note the work that the Canberra Business Council are doing in this space. They have established a subcommittee to explore exactly how Canberra can benefit from this transformative technology.
Every day there are news stories from all over the world about the progress which is being made in this space. Many Australian companies are studying the progress of autonomous vehicle technology and planning for their introduction. Accenture’s Realising the benefits of autonomous vehicles in Australia report is one such document which details the benefits to our communities of this very real technology. As stated in this 2014 report authored by Dave Maunsell, Praveen Tanguturi and James Hogarth:
No longer a science fiction vision, autonomous vehicles are already being actively used in industries such as mining and are expected to become a mainstream consumer phenomenon in Australia within a decade.
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