Australia in League of Countries Testing Driverless Technology
Published On Dec 26, 2016
Australia is now a part of the list of countries to have tested driver-less vehicle technology on their roads, as the country famous for Gold Coast, is currently busy conducting trials of a driver-less bus in Perth located in Western Australia.
The bus, known as RAC Intellibus, is an 11 seater prototype vehicle developed by Navya, a France based company. RAC Intellibus, has been bought by the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia (RAC WA) for an amount of INR 1.45 crores (Australian $ 296,000). It is also the first completely autonomous vehicle to have been driven on roads in Australia.
Pat Walker, Executive General Manager, RAC WA, said, “The trial is to understand how we can safely transition autonomous vehicles into the transport mix on our public roads in Australia. The Intellibus is also a great opportunity for people with disabilities – visually impaired, older motorists and also younger children – to give them far more autonomy in terms of their mobility options.”
The driver-less bus, operating at speeds of up to 25 km/hour, is currently being tested on a 2.7 km short stretch located in South Perth. Like most other trials, the bus is accompanied by a trained expert, seating ready to take over the vehicle at any point in time.
The Australian, one of Australia’s leading newspapers, reported the bus making use of four 3D imaging cameras, GPS system and six sensors working on light detection and ranging technology for successful navigation.
RAC Intellibus has also been equipped with buttons allowing passengers to immediately stop the vehicle in times of emergency. People looking to experience the driver less bus can do so through pre- booking on RAC website only.
