Brisbane road, Queensland, Australia
The Queensland Government has chosen two IT services providers to pave the way for automated vehicles as part of a $5.2 million project.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) has chosen Kapsch TrafficCom and Cohda Wireless to supply and maintain the technology linking connected vehicles to Queensland’s roadways by 2021.
The two-year process will see Kapsch provide 30 roadside intelligent transport systems (R-ITS-S) while Cohda Wireless will supply 550 vehicle intelligent transport systems (V-ITS-S).
Adelaide-based Cohda Wireless will also supply human machine interfaces (HMI) - tablets displaying road safety information.
TMR will gain intellectual ownership of the hardware systems, which will send alerts to automated vehicles, warning them of hazards such as red light violators, roadworks and stopped vehicles.
The contracts form part of the state’s Ipswich Connected Vehicle pilot, which is aimed at testing the safety of cooperative intelligent transport system (C-ITS) technologies.
Also involved in the project is Lexus Australia, who will provide two specially-equipped vehicles capable of communicating with each other to test the new technology.
The technology will be developed and tested throughout 2019 and enter field-testing by 2020.
According to research by the TMR, complete adoption of C-ITS in state vehicles would lead to a 20 per cent reduction in car crashes and three per cent savings in fuel emissions. Total cost savings over 30 years would total $2 billion, the research added.
Last year, Cohda Wireless teamed up with Cisco to build a Connected Roadways safety solution, which is due to be sold through the Australian channel in 2019.
The solution, which is aimed at improving safety, consists of Cohda Road-Side Unit (RSU) MK5 connecting to vehicles via dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) that is integrated with a Cisco IR809 IoT Gateway. By using these, the data and location of vehicles is then tracked to identify if any of the road users are under threat.
Cisco expects to start selling the Connected Roadways solution through its Australian channel partners in 2019.
