Jay Weatherill to pitch driverless car hub plan to replace Holden at Elizabeth

THE Holden manufacturing plant in Elizabeth should be turned into a world-class hub for driverless car technology, Premier Jay Weatherill says. He will pitch the plan to General Motors in the US this week.

• Transport Minister’s driverless car ploughs into fake kangaroo
• The first big trial of driverless cars on the Southern Expressway
• What’s driving the Premier’s grand plan

THE Holden manufacturing plant in Elizabeth should be turned into a world-class hub for driverless car technology, Premier Jay Weatherill says and will pitch the plan to General Motors in the US this week.

It would be modelled on Mcity — a unique facility which uses a fake city to test driverless car technology — in Michigan.

“Using the Elizabeth plant is an opportunity to be a tester for that technology in Australia and all of the southern hemisphere,” Mr Weatherill said.

He said the hub could use all the available land at the Elizabeth plant, which is set to close next year.

The pitch follows a failed plan by Belgian entrepreneur Guido Dumarey, of Punch Corporation, which would have kept the plant making cars.

It would have initially involved making cars on contract for other manufacturers, including Holden, then the corporation would have started building its own vehicles within five years.

But the plan collapsed after it was rejected by General Motors.

South Australia has embarked on a nation-leading trial of driverless cars that could lead to sales of the vehicles to the public as soon as 2017.

Last July, the government announced a trial of the Volvo vehicles, which included a two-day test on the Southern Expressway in November.

However, the trial turned to farce when Transport Minister Stephen Mulligan was put in a driverless car, which promptly ran into an inflatable kangaroo.

Mr Weatherill is on a nine-day trade mission, which includes a visit to the General Motors in Detroit and a look at driverless cars in Pennsylvania.