Partial automated vehicle trial findings

The Queensland trial built on previous trials by highlighting where findings were consistent with Sydney and Melbourne and by identifying new findings from Brisbane motorways that were not seen in previous trials.

The collective findings will help vehicle manufacturers, road operators and governments prepare road infrastructure to support automated vehicles, as they become more common on our roads.

To see the trial’s findings and recommendations, download the trial report (PDF).

The following videos illustrate some of the findings described in the report. Although, they show scenarios that can arise in some vehicle in certain conditions, they are not necessarily common to all trial vehicles.

Emergency bays

Changes in line marking as vehicles passed an emergency bay would sometimes interfere with lane keeping.

Driven to distraction

The absence of line markings within roadworks often disengaged lane keeping (for example where temporary ‘stick and stomp’ plastic markers were used).

What’s the speed limit again?

Electronic signs
Signs within and at the entrance to some tunnels were difficult for vehicles to identify.

Digital maps
Sometimes vehicles identified a change in speed limit where there was no sign, seemingly following speeds from a digital map.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Lane keeping sometimes disengaged when emerging from a tunnel portal back into daylight. Exit ramps or emergency bays at these locations may cause further complications.

At a cross road

Some vehicles struggled to maintain lane keeping while taking sharper curves in the road (such as at motorway-to-motorway interchanges), without slowing down as suggested on advisory speed signs.