Accelerating the uptake of C-ITS technologies in Australia
Increasing the uptake of road safety technology was a key recommendation of the 2018 National Road Safety Strategy Inquiry report, with joint commitment to support the recommendation through the Road Safety Working Group’s Implementation Plan.
There is a strong commitment across all levels of government to improve safety outcomes on our roads. governments are progressing standards to support the deployment of technology such as Autonomous Emergency Braking, along with broad improvements in crash protection.
Project background
Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) combine information technology and mobile communication to enable data transmissions between vehicles, roadside infrastructure and central management systems, in order to improve roadway safety for all users, as well as traffic flow efficiency in the network.
The recent technological advancements in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications (vehicle connectivity, in general), wireless sensors, video analytics, artificial intelligence, edge computing and IoT can support and accelerate cooperative transport systems for Australian cities. However, the potential safety and efficiency benefits from connected vehicles are unlikely to be realised in the immediate future in Australia due to the age of our fleet and the limited connectivity of new vehicles.
There is a potential to increase the number of compatible connected vehicles within the Australian fleet over the next decade through the fitting of after-market devices and/or increasing the demand of consumers for connectivity to be enabled in new vehicles arriving in Australia. An increase in connected vehicles is likely to lead to improved road safety outcomes for the community.
ANCAP Safety modelling on road death projection estimated that with an increasing population and no changes to current road death rates over the next five years, around 6,000 lives will be lost on Australia’s roads.
AAA research found that in 2018–19, congestion costs are expected to exceed $23 billion, which will be more than the value of all road-related expenditure. Without major policy changes, congestion costs are projected to reach between $30.6 and $41.2 billion by 2030 (see Road Congestion in Australia).
Safety and traffic congestion are two of the key challenges on our networks and there is strong potential for connectivity and C-ITS to improve these vital problems.
Project objectives
The project will address the following:
- Detail the applications and penetration of levels of connectivity – including internet enabled devices as well as DSRC – 5G, with a focus on safety and congestion use cases.
- Desktop study to understand the percentage of connected and C-ITS enabled vehicles to enable positive impacts in safety and network productivity.
- Research investigating the range of devices and technologies currently available and their uses and emerging technologies.
- Environmental scan to study the current and projected percentage of connected and C-ITS vehicles.
- Review of data from C-ITS and Automated Vehicles trials – CITI, CAVI and AIMES.
- Potential pathways to achieve the desired penetration and assessment of most effective use.
UPDATE: November 2020 – Project complete, final report available
With this project having drawn to a close, a white paper on the findings and recommendations has been published. It’s available for download via the article, How soon is now? The convincing case for connected vehicles.
