NSW to host driverless vehicle summit

The nation’s peak driverless vehicle industry collective says a commitment by the New South Wales Government to host a national Centre of Excellence and a world-leading summit later this year demonstrates a strong commitment that puts the state at the leading edge of innovation and reinforces that it is well and truly open for business.

Under an agreement struck between Transport for NSW and the Australia and New Zealand International Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI), the state will host what is expected to be the biggest automated vehicle exhibition and trade show ever seen in Australia in October 2019.

ADVI Executive Director, Ms Rita Excell, said the strong show of support by the NSW Government and Transport for New South Wales demonstrates their forward-thinking in transport technologies and will go a long way to address Australia’s slippage in automated vehicle readiness rankings recently released.

ARRB is a lead partner in ADVI.

“ADVI and our partners are very excited about this opportunity to align more closely with the work being undertaken in NSW to ensure the focus moves beyond limited trials and deployments to achieving true commercialisation of this technology as already seen in other parts of the world,” Ms Excell said.

“This new collaboration takes the introduction of automated vehicles onto our roads to the next level and is sure to attract national and global attention.

In October 2019, the world’s focus is expected to turn on Sydney when it hosts the biggest automated vehicle event ever to be held in Australia.

Ms Excell said previous international driverless vehicle summits have attracted all of the world’s leading automated shuttle manufacturers and other industry leaders, and ADVI looks forward to bringing its industry partners to Sydney and inviting them to put their driverless vehicle innovations on display for the world to see.

“Transport for New South Wales has an ambitious and comprehensive program of works in place to best prepare the state for a world where driverless vehicles share the road, and they have ensured that this technology is at the very heart of its long-term transport vision – and ADVI is pleased at the opportunity to be part of that exciting journey,” she said.

“Future Transport 2056 is the first Strategy of its kind focused on harnessing the rapid advancement driverless technology and innovation across NSW’s transport system to transform the user experience, improve communities, and boost economic performance.”