automated vehicle trial
The 2018 model of the Renault ZOE electric vehicle. Credit: Vauxford.

The Queensland government in Australia has reached an agreement with French collaborative research centre VEDECOM to provide the state’s first automated vehicle trial next year.

The initiative will form part of the automated vehicle technology on-road testing carried out in Queensland to ensure the state is prepared for the future autonomous vehicles.

It is also a part of the Department of Transport and Main Roads Cooperative and Highly Automated Driving (CHAD) pilot programme.

The vehicle will be supplied by VEDECOM and has been classified as a Society of Automotive Engineers Level Four, which does not need the driver to take action while it is driving but still allows for manual control if the situation requires it.

“Through QUT’s partnership with VEDECOM, a French collaborative research centre, we will test automated vehicle safety across five areas, roads, roadsides, vehicles, road users and speeds.”

The vehicle will be designed to work as a cooperative automated vehicle (CAV) that helps it to connect to other vehicles, infrastructure and road operations systems to share safety-related messages and warnings.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said: “In early 2019, we will receive a Renault ZOE EV, a Society of Automotive Engineers Level Four automated vehicle purpose-built in France for our CHAD pilot.”

Bailey Further added that the government had collaborated with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and iMOVE Cooperative Research Centre to explore the safety impacts of automated vehicles on the city roads and to enable road users to see and experience them.

“Through QUT’s partnership with VEDECOM, a French collaborative research centre, we will test automated vehicle safety across five areas, roads, roadsides, vehicles, road users and speeds.

“This will be the fourth vehicle prototype built by VEDECOM. It will be both cooperative and able to operate in autonomous mode under certain conditions.”

iMOVE Australia managing director Ian Christensen said that urgent improvements to transport systems were needed to reduce congestion, accidents and emissions.

The CHAD pilot is part of the Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative. It also includes Australia’s largest trial of cooperative intelligent transport systems technologies for the benefit of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders.