Queensland readies for intelligent vehicle trial

Queensland is preparing for driverless and connected vehicles, with plans under way for what the state government called the largest on-road testing trial in Australia. State Main Roads and Road Safety Minister Mark Bailey announced that Ipswich, southeast of Brisbane, would host trials over the next four years on vehicles and infrastructure that can talk to one another, as well as tests on highly automated vehicles. The trials form part of the Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative (CAVI), and will see the state government recruit around 500 Ipswich motorists to have their vehicles retrofitted with cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) technology. "These C-ITS devices work by providing safety warnings to the driver about a range of conditions -- for example, a pedestrian crossing at a signalised intersection, a red light runner, or a queue ahead that isn't visible to a driver," Bailey explained. "Our interest in testing these vehicles is to help understand the implications for our infrastructure and drivers, and the improvements to automated vehicle performance when the vehicle can talk to other vehicles and infrastructure."