Australian Autonomous Vehicles Trial Guidelines Announced

The government announced last week in Canberra the NATIONAL guidelines for trials of autonomous vehicles in Australia, paving the way for global car manufacturers and technology providers to test vehicles in Australia.

The guidelines cover areas such as safety, reporting and insurance, and require the trialing organizations (mostly car manufacturers) to address a wide range of conditions.

Government authorities believe that autonomous vehicles are not only inevitable but quickly approaching market readiness

Autonomous Driving, an inevitable part of our future

Many manufacturers are already testing (Auto Driving) here, including Ford and Holden, who have massive investment in vehicle research and development in Australia. Autonomous test vehicles play a big part of their future.

Other manufacturers such as Toyota, Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi who bring vehicles to Australia for suspension and cooling system testing, will now include autonomous control components as part of their testing.

Autonomous vehicles have been tested in the USA for quite some time now by numerous motor companies and also tech suppliers like Google, sometimes with less than perfect results, so it will be interesting to see how it plays here.

Despite the risks, governments in Australia and elsewhere see autonomous vehicles as the best way to drastically reduce the road toll while at the same time improving traffic flows.

We will keep you updated on this futuristic drive.