This week, the New South Wales (NSW) Driverless Shuttle at Sydney Olympic Park welcomed its first passengers, as a select group of competition winners from the 2018 Easter Show took a ride in the vehicle, and effectively opened stage two of the state’s first driverless shuttle trial.

“I’m very excited to see passengers on these vehicles,” says Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Minister Andrew Constance.

“We know self-driving cars will play a major role in the future and that’s the future we’re preparing for right now.”

In August 2017, through the Smart Innovation Centre, the NSW Government partnered with a variety of entities to conduct a two-year trial of the state’s first highly automated shuttle.

The trial is considered a “landmark moment for the state,” according to Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Melinda Pavey.

“We’re on the cusp of optimizing our road infrastructure with emerging technologies including driverless vehicles making our roads safer, more efficient and enhancing mobility for customers,” Pavey says.

“Since launching the trial we’ve been working to ensure the Shuttle delivers a safe and comfortable journey, first testing the shuttle’s braking, sensors and communications in the off road environment at Newington Armoury, then after safe and successful operation we progressed testing to public roads around Sydney Olympic Park.” 

A shuttle manufactured by Navya is being used for the trial. Considered a “level four, highly autonomous vehicle,” the shuttle, which is designed to carry up to 12 passengers, can travel up to 40 kilometers per hour in autonomous mode. The Navya shuttle is equipped with front and rear cameras, LIDAR, GPS technology and autonomous emergency brakes.

​The shuttle will continue to operate on Olympic Boulevard, and members of the public will have the opportunity to book limited free rides over the next few weeks. Transport for NSW says that it will release these dates on the Smart Innovation Centre and trial partner websites with bookings to be available two days a week, before the trial moves on to stage three early next year.

Stage three of the Shuttle trial will focus on servicing parts of the Sydney Olympic Park precinct, with a variety of uses—including transporting office workers, residents and other precinct workers—being tested.

“We want to use the trial to help develop the systems that will enable automated vehicles to be connected to our infrastructure, like traffic lights and to our customers through their devices and applications,” Constance says.