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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES FREIGHT For the greater goods


Autonomous driving for road trains carrying Outback freight, assessed by Chris Skinner


S


o the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress (ITS WC) is coming back to Oz after a 15-year absence


and this time to Melbourne, Victoria. The Australian city is repeatedly assessed as the most liveable city in the world for all kinds of reasons – too numerous to list here – and has been the centre of the automotive manufacturing industry in Australia, until recently when govern- ment subsidies ceased. No-one is saying the automotive


industry has been an imposition on the taxpayer – far from it. High-technology manufacturing and complementary edu- cation and training have all experienced a major boost in Victoria, and to a lesser


CONNECTED AUSTRALIA SUPPLEMENT


extent in adjoining South Australia. The latter has reinvented itself as the Defence State, building submarines and warships there and exploiting its heavy involve- ment in defence research and devel- opment of all kinds, since the Second World War. Many UK defence tests were conducted there including early atomic weapons tests. For ITS WC visitors from densely


populated countries with road vehi- cles numbering tens of millions, normal expectations include a network of well- made highways. Not so here in Oz, as may be viewed from any aircraft crossing the vast land areas en route to Melbourne. The Australian population, some 24


2


million, is mostly located around the east- ern, south eastern and south western sea- board, with inland centres of much lower population, but with extensive land trans- port needs – freight by rail in some cases but mainly by road; pax by air or self-drive cars for shorter distances. The implication of this demographic


distribution is that the cities are like cities everywhere else, but the most impor- tant transport task is covering vast areas over lonely road and rail links connect- ing isolated population centres and rural and remote area mining and agricultural properties (often called stations), espe- cially for exported product. I always joke that Australia must be


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