Page 725 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 March 2016

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Between these extremes are a mix of technologies which automate some parts of driving—for example, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance and cars that can park themselves. All of these technologies are limited to controlling an individual car. The next level of automation will see vehicles communicate with each other as well. Intelligent transport systems, where vehicles convey their position to others, as well as with infrastructure like traffic lights, will help these cars move ever more efficiently around our cities.

The prospect of self-driving cars has been a technology just over the horizon for quite some time. That horizon has kept edging away from us for so long that it is understandable to think that they will always be tantalisingly just on the science fiction side of believable. The reality, though, is that self-driving vehicles have been in use in the mining sector for some time, where fleets of autonomous trucks have offered a safe and efficient alternative to risky driving scenarios.

Autonomous vehicles are already being tested on public roads around the world, and most large automotive manufacturers already plan to begin producing highly automated passenger vehicles within the next decade. Some, like Tesla, already offer high levels of automation in existing production models. The benefits of driverless vehicles are broad—economic, social and environmental. Properly thought-through regulation, trials, and use can improve public transport networks, give us better active travel options and change our parking arrangements.

The territory government is acting quickly so that Canberrans can see the most immediate benefits, just as we have acted quickly to capitalise on other disruptive technologies. Driverless cars can never replace efficient mass transit systems in our cities. That is an entirely unrealistic argument, mostly made by people who wish it was true to help them win other arguments. We will always need to move large numbers of people in a way that cars inherently cannot. What automated vehicles can do, though, is complement efficient and integrated bus and light rail networks, along with strong, active travel facilities.

The most obvious benefit of a future that incorporates autonomous vehicles is the prospect of improving safety on our roads. On average over the last decade there have been 13 deaths per year on ACT roads, and around 700 injuries. The personal costs of these deaths and injuries, the loss of friends and loved ones, is still far too high. The costs of road accidents are not just borne by those involved and by their loved ones; they cost the national economy $27 billion every year.

Many crashes are the result of human error or risky behaviours. In the ACT, at least one in 10 crashes is a single vehicle accident, with driver error the sole cause. Almost half of all accidents in the ACT are rear-end collisions. These types of accidents can be easily prevented by autonomous vehicles.

Google’s autonomous vehicle fleet has driven more than two million autonomous kilometres over seven years of testing, recording only one minor accident where the autonomous vehicle was at fault. Safety needs to be at the heart of our transport system, at the heart of the technologies on the road, and at the heart of the regulatory arrangements that go with them.


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