$10m fund for driverless, connected vehicles

The South Australian Government will invest $10 million to boost testing, research and development of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies in South Australia.

Transport and infrastructure minister Stephen Mullighan will launch the initiative at the 23rd World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) starting in Melbourne today.

More than 7000 attendees and more than 300 exhibitors from around 60 countries worldwide will be attending the largest gathering of ITS researchers, developers and users in the Asia Pacific region for years.

The SA government will invite companies, industry bodies, research institutions and other organisations to submit proposals to speed up the development and implementation of connected and driverless vehicle technology, focusing on the following three themes.

Autonomous vehicle testing and demonstrations: propose testing of vehicles and technologies in both off-road laboratory conditions and real-world environment in general mixed traffic conditions.

Connected vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure pilots and demonstration: propose pilots and demonstrations for next generation technology in infrastructure and in vehicles.

Research and development: propose projects that enable and accelerate the development and deployment of autonomous and connected vehicles.

Grant applications for the fund – which is worth $10 million over three years – will open on November 14. All projects must take place in South Australia.

Overseas-based partners are encouraged to participate by partnering with local SA small to medium-sized enterprises, universities and other organisations.

“We are looking for creative proposals that will accelerate the roll-out of these technologies on our roads and open up new opportunities for SA businesses and our economy,” says Mullighan.

“We already have world leading companies in this field. Cohda Wireless, SAGE Automation and Sydac are all based in SA and are some of our most impressive success stories.”

It is estimated that the driverless vehicle industry will be worth $90 billion globally by 2030.