Australia’s largest C-ITS (Cooperative Intelligent Transport System) trial, which will take place in the city of Ipswich, Queensland, involving 500 public and fleet vehicles, is to partner with Cohda Wireless for technology that enables vehicles to ‘talk’ to infrastructure.
Each of the fleet vehicles in the trial will be retrofitted with Cohda Wireless’s On-Board Unit (OBU) that can communicate with roadside C-ITS devices installed on arterial and motorway infrastructure to share safety-related warnings and advisory messages with other drivers.
The trial, which is being delivered by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), is designed to prepare the state for the emergence of advanced vehicle technologies. It has partnered with Australia-based Cohda Wireless for OBUs that can exchange data at high speeds over extended distances to provide greater reactions to hazards and dangerous scenarios.
The devices will be able to offer warning on everything from emergency braking to road works warnings, upcoming traffic, hazards in the road ahead, or even the possibility that another driver may be about to run through a red light into their path.
The data accumulated during the pilot will not only help Australia develop its own road network for autonomous driving but will also provide insight for other countries around the world.
“We firmly believe that the Ipswich Connected Vehicle Pilot will contribute significantly to the advancement of a connected and cooperative road transport environment in Australia and we are delighted to be a partner in it,” explained Dr Paul Gray, CEO, Cohda Wireless.
“We are particularly excited about being involved in an initiative of this scale and magnitude that has connectivity at its core. We believe that connecting road users and infrastructure is critical,” added Gray.