Leading-edge autonomous vehicle technology trials will be hitting the roads of Victoria as part of VicRoads’ Connected and Automated Vehicle Trial Grants Program.

Lexus Australia and Telstra were awarded a $3.5 million grant to trial smart vehicle communications technology. Vehicles in the trial will utilise a specific adaptation of Telstra’s 4G mobile systems. With the help of Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology, vehicles will be able to connect other vehicles, cloud servers, and access VicRoads’ real-time data.

The promise of V2X technology has been previously tested in controlled track environments, but these trials will test various new road safety features in a real world environment, such as red-light violator warnings, pedestrian alerts and right-turn assistance.

Minister for Roads, Minister for Road Safety and the TAC, Jaala Pulford said, “We’re trialing cutting-edge technology like this to make our roads safer into the future.”

“Victoria leading the nation in connected and automated vehicles – this technology will be critical in making roads safer not only here but across Australia,” she added.

Read Telstra’s account of the program and the use of its 4GX network.

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