More than 10,000 international technology leaders travelled to Melbourne for the 23rd World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems last week.

SAGE Automation joined more than 300 exhibitors to highlight our most recent contributions toward the future of transport.

Our team returned from the congress to share four key highlights including South Australia being recognised as an ITS leader with AddInsight, a $10 million boost from the SA government, the future of driverless shuttles and the benefits in connected vehicles.

1.      South Australia leading the way with AddInsight technology.

SAGE joined DPTI and Sydac to showcase South Australian transport and technology innovations including AddInsight, a freeway and arterial road incident detection and congestion management system.

The week was concluded with the 2016 ITS Australia National awards, where DPTI received the Government Award category for their AddInsight smartphone application.

The System uses Bluetooth technology to connect to motorists’ mobile phones, providing verbal, real-time alerts via the phone’s loud speaker, hands-free kit or car stereo warning about unforeseen or unplanned traffic delays.

This is a first step towards providing information from road-side infrastructure into a vehicle without the need for any specific hardware being installed in the vehicles. 

SAGE is proud to be a partner with DPTI, developing and manufacturing the solar powered bluetooth capture stations which form the backbone of the system.

Mr Hewitt said the AddInsight hardware has been sold across the country and the bluetooth technology integration with solar and 3G/4G networks “has really taken it to another level”.

DPTI also received the Automated Vehicle Award, a new category for 2016, for driverless vehicle on-road testing and legislation which highlighted the wide considerations surrounding liability and compulsory third party injury insurance.

2.      $10 million for South Australian businesses

On the first day of the Congress SA Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Stephen Mullighan announced the government would be investing $10M over the next three years into the testing, research and development of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies in South Australia.

South Australian companies, industry bodies, research institutions and other organisations will be invited to submit creative proposals aimed at accelerating the development and implementation of connected and autonomous vehicle technology from November 14.

The government has said the focus will be around three themes, autonomous vehicle testing and demonstrations, connected vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure pilots and demonstrations and research and development.

Mr Mullighan said South Australia already has world leading companies in this field.

“Cohda Wireless, SAGE Automation and Sydac are all based in South Australia and are some of our most impressive success stories,” he said.

“Connected and autonomous vehicles can deliver huge benefits to South Australia - they have the capacity to reduce congestion, save lives and help people get around our community with more freedom.

“As the demand on our roads continues to grow, it’s vital that we look for more efficient ways to move traffic around the State.”

3.      The future of driverless shuttles.

SAGE senior project manager Damian Hewitt said one of the highlights from the ITS Congress is the future of driverless shuttles so developing safe testing and appropriate legislation is important.

This technology is currently trialling in Perth, where Australia's first driverless shuttle bus has started carrying passengers along a pre-programmed route along the foreshore in South Perth.

The vehicle can carry 11 passengers and travels at an average speed of 25kph.

The shuttle is a considered level four on the automation scale, meaning it can perform all safety-critical driving functions without anyone behind the wheel, but only in specific environments.

The shuttle can be manually overridden if necessary and there are several collision avoidance systems in place including front and rear cameras, GPS technology and autonomous emergency breaks, as well as an emergency stop button.

Mr Mullighan said it is estimated that the driverless vehicle industry will be worth $90 billion globally by 2030.

“Getting our State involved early will open up new opportunities for South Australian businesses and our economy,” he said.

4.      The potential of connected vehicles.

SAGE is an integrator of Cohda Wireless’s connected vehicle wireless technology.

SAGE will be implementing the intelligent traffic systems as part of the O’Bahn to City upgrade.

As integrators of Cohda’s connected vehicle technology SAGE are able to integrate cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that use both vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, collectively called V2X.

These enable cooperation between vehicles and road infrastructure and improvements in the areas of safety, mobility, and the environment.