Ipswich hosts Australia’s largest intelligent vehicle trial

Ipswich continues to be at the forefront of digital transformation and now the city will host Australia’s largest on-road testing trial of cooperative vehicles and infrastructure.

The program will put Ipswich motorists in the driver’s seat as part of a plan to bring cooperative vehicles to Queensland roads.

The Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative (CAVI) is a Department of Transport and Main Roads project that will prepare for, and accelerate, the emergence of advanced vehicle technologies with safety, mobility and environmental benefits.

The main component of CAVI is the Cooperative Intelligent Transport System (C-ITS) Pilot.

The pilot will involve about 500 vehicles retrofitted with C-ITS devices that enable them to ‘talk’ to other vehicles, infrastructure, road operations systems and cloud-based data sharing systems.

The C-ITS devices provide safety warnings about a range of conditions including a pedestrian crossing at a signalised intersection, a hazard on the road or a queue of cars ahead.

Vehicles will be fitted with wireless and sensor technologies designed to share the vehicle’s position, speed and other data, as well as receive road and traffic data from cloud-based sharing systems.

These rapidly developing technologies have the potential to significantly reduce crashes and crash-related gridlock and reduce vehicle emissions and fuel use over the coming decades.

WATCH: On the road with CAVI’s emergency braking warning.

Validating the effectiveness of C-ITS for safer and more efficient transport in a real environment will be examined as part of the project, along with analysing driver behaviour and acceptance of, and willingness to use, the technology.

Set to hit public and private roads across Ipswich in 2019, CAVI will lay the technical foundations for the next generation of smart transport infrastructure, supporting prosperity, productivity, connectivity and sustainability.

The real-world results you can expect to see from CAVI

• On-road testing that estimates safety benefits and increases public awareness of road safety issues.

• Opportunities to up-skill government and industry employees.

• Formation and testing of new industry partnerships.

• A test-bed for use by government, industry and academics will be available at the program’s conclusion.