South Australia becomes the first state in Australia to introduce the Motor Vehicles (Trials of Automotive Technologies) Amendment Bill 2016 which allows trials of driverless vehicles.
What does it mean?
This new legislation allows on-road trials of driverless vehicles and provides a framework to facilitate the testing and development of driverless vehicles and other advanced automotive technology on South Australian roads.
In addition, the South Australian Government is providing $10 million over the next three years to fund projects that demonstrate, develop, and/or contribute to the applied research of Future Mobility technologies that provide real benefits to our communities.
The objective of the Future Mobility Fund is to support projects that:
- Promote and accelerate the development of connected and autonomous vehicles and other future mobility technology that provide benefits to road users or address real challenges.
- Contribute to State Government priorities Operation Moving Traffic, Towards Zero Together, Carbon Neutral Adelaide, Smart City, and Growth through Innovation.
- Contribute to establishing Adelaide as a Future Mobility Lab.
- Contribute to building an industry around connected and autonomous vehicles and other future mobility technologies.
- All projects must take place in South Australia.
Will this reduce motor vehicle accidents and injuries?
It would be interesting to see how the driverless vehicles will impact our road accident statistics. As per South Australian police website there were 86 fatalities, 77 fatal crashes, 704 serious injuries and 605 serious injury crashes in 2016.
If you have suffered an injury due to a road accident in South Australia, please contact one of our expert Motor Accident Lawyers. We are based in Adelaide and offer a No Win No Fee service for personal injury claims in South Australia.
