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The Register is reporting plans to hold trials of driverless cars in Adelaide - not simply to test the cars themselves but also to determine what is required to support automated driving technologies in terms of infrastructure and manufacturing.
The scope of the trials seems limited: there'll be two days of tests on November 5th and 6th to coincide with a conference. How many cars and how far they'll go hasn't been discussed, but the cars will apparently drive around the airport, the Southern Expressway and Tonsley Innovation Park.
It's hoped the trials "will establish how driverless technology needs to be manufactured and introduced for uniquely Australian driving behaviour, our climate and road conditions, including what this means for Australia’s national road infrastructure, markings, surfaces and roadside signage,” according to the ARRB's group managing director Gerard Waldron.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2015, @12:35PM
This is kinda like saying "Let's catch up to the rest of the world on the new thing by going about it slower than them."
The funny thing is that Australia is the first place I would expect Autonomous Semi-trucks to be deployed. Thousands of miles of empty roadways connecting some of the most sparsely populated terrain on Earth, and at the same time some of the highest wages on the planet. Is that not enough incentive for them?