Australia’s First and the World’s Second Public Road Automated Vehicle Trial

I recently had the opportunity to take a ride on Australia's first automated vehicle, an autonomous i.e. completely driverless and fully electric shuttle bus which the RAC is testing and trialling in South Perth at the moment. The Verdict? Well, although it was good fun it was largely uneventful, which undoubtedly, is the whole point. The vehicle performed as expected giving right of way to other cars, obstacles, pedestrians etc and keeping to the middle of its lane.

The bus has a manual override which the driver ‘chaperone’ amusingly demonstrated using an X-Box controller – yes you heard right, quite amazing.

The bus is a ‘Level 4’ autonomous vehicle which means it is full driverless and capable of driving and navigating without any occupants. Most current model cars already have many level 2 and level 3 features such as automatic emergency braking, radar cruise control and automatic lane keeping with all the Tesla cars offering Autopilot which now includes the Summon feature which allows the vehicle to find and drive to its owner. The driver can also use their mobile phone to remotely drive the vehicle. Who said James Bond films were science fiction? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBlOc79L0So