South Australian company Cohda Wireless helping autonomous vehicles see around corners

A company in Adelaide is turning heads, changing cars from New York to Norway, including Volkswagen’s new Golf model, as the world embraces self-driving tech.

More than half the self-driving, connected cars tested around the world have a little piece of Australian technology in them.

Specifically, the world’s most advanced vehicles are using software from an Adelaide firm that saw the potential for smart cars more than a decade ago.

And Cohda Wireless chief executive Paul Gray said the company had now proven its innovations could help cars “see around corners” and had the potential to make road transport safer.

The company, which employs 35 people in Adelaide’s CBD, specialises in connecting vehicles to information, whether it’s sent from other smart cars, traffic lights, or emergency services.

By giving cars more information about what’s ahead — whether that’s an accident, an unseen pedestrian or a fallen tree — Mr Gray said smart cars could make better choices about how to drive safely.

Cohda Wireless CEO Paul Gray, leads an Aussie company that is involved in more than half of all self-driving car trials around the world. Picture: Dean Martin

“With autonomous vehicles, an admirable goal is to mimic a perfect human driver but you can actually do more than that,” he said.

“By using these additional capabilities, you can do better than a perfect human driver.”

In a two-year study by the University of Sydney and iMOVE Cooperative Research Centre, for example, researchers proved Cohda Wireless software could help connected cars avoid collisions with pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles that weren’t even in view.

“It gave the vehicle the ability to see around corners,” he said.

”There might be a bicycle coming around a blind corner but another vehicle on the side road has a clear view of it and can share that information with all the vehicles around it.”

In future, this data could be shared by a network of smart vehicles on the road or by connected traffic lights that warned vehicles when signals would change.

Cohda Wireless technology during a connected car trial. Picture: AAP

The company’s technology has so far been deployed as far as New York and Norway, was integral to a trial involving connected cars in Queensland, and was recently added to VW’s new Golf 8.

Mr Gray said, ultimately, giving cars access to more information could make road travel safer and buying a smart car would become a sensible investment.

“We’ve got connected vehicles on the roads in Europe now. We’re a couple layers away from having connected vehicles on our roadways here,” he said.

“When you get that tipping point then it’s a no-brainer.”