Driverless shuttle to roll over Torrens footbridge as tech industry leaders roll into Adelaide

THE best the driverless vehicle industry has on offer will roll out for all to see around the CBD and Tonsley this week as tech heavyweights fly into Adelaide.

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DRIVERLESS shuttles that showcase the best in global autonomous driving technologies will take to Adelaide roads and bridges around the Torrens as part of the international driverless summit this week.

Key representatives from the Australian and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI) will meet in SA ahead of the conference on Wednesday and Thursday.

“It’s basically a coalition of the willing — really over a hundred different organisations — just trying to accelerate the safe representation of the driverless technology on Australian roads,” said Professor Rocco Zito, who is part of the scientific research group at ADVI and also head of civil engineering at the Flinders University.

The conference will showcase UK company Aurrigo’s Pod Zero and French manufacturer Navya’s Arma and its counterpart EasyMile’s EZ10 shuttles, which are already part of trials in other parts of Australia.

“Auggio’s Pod Zero will be programmed to run on the Adelaide Oval Bridge,” said Roger van der Lee, Aurrigo’s autonomous programs director — Australia & Asia Pacific.

“It’s very exciting for us to showcase technology that will be in use at Tonsley later this month,” he said.

Aurrigo's Pod Zero for SA. Image supplied.

Professor Zito said the conference builds on momentum created by the first public road test of driverless vehicle technology in 2015 with a modified Volvo on a closed Southern Expressway and creates excitement ahead of key Adelaide precinct trials.

Aurrigo’s trial within the Tonsley innovation precinct begins later this month while Navya’s shuttle will be trialled around Tonsley early next year. Another autonomous trial is slated for the Adelaide Airport in late 2018.

These trials are supported by funding from the state government’s $10 million Future Mobility Lab fund, designed to position the state to win a share of the global autonomous technology industry expected to be worth $90 billion by 2030.

Professor Zito is leading the Flinders Autonomous Shuttle Trial (FAST) — a collaboration between project partners Flinders University and RAA together with the SA Government, Cohda Wireless, SAGE Automation, Siemens, Telstra, transdev, UPG and ZEN Energy.

FAST is a five-year project to use Navya’s Arma shuttle providing ‘last mile’ public transport from the Tonsley train station (when it’s completed), South Road and other points within the Tonsley site.

Navya commercial director, Henri Coron, will be in Adelaide for the conference and will also likely face questions about a minor accident in the US last week where its driverless shuttle, with passengers on board, hit the front of a delivery truck due to human error.

The shuttle stopped but the truck driver did not.