Australia - Smart and Connected Transport

Australia - Smart and Connected Transport

Smart transport systems, or intelligent transport systems, encompass a range of wireless and wired communications-based information technologies that can be integrated into transportation infrastructure and vehicles.

Current intelligent transport systems technologies use dedicated short-range communications to transfer data over short distances between in-vehicle mobile radio units and roadside units that is, fixed point-to-point services. Arrangements to facilitate the use of intelligent transport systems have been developed internationally in the 5850-5925MHz band (the 5.9GHz band). However ACMA still classified this as a medium priority for finalisation, and waiting on international standards has made progress fairly slow.

Progress in the sector has been rather slow and new developments are coming from others wanting a share of the new activities. A large number of smartphone apps are now available for drivers to optimise their trips, become more energy-efficient. Car manufacturers are also using the connected car platform as a possibility for autonomous driving services that can be offered to the marketplace.

A range of other apps are being made available in the context of the sharing economy.

Smart infrastructure is also looked at in the context of the national broadband network (NBN), the aim of which is to supply the basic telecommunication infrastructure for a range of sectors, including transport. Special access is provided for utilities in the NBN Bill. Smart transport systems may be able to reduce the carbon footprint and energy use across many of the transport industries while, at the same time, lowering GHG emissions. The government of the time also announced its Managed Motorways project. However more government leadership is needed to push smart transport deeper into the market.

Companies mentioned in this report include:

Toyota, University of Wollongong, University of Sydney, RailCorp, Ergon Energy, CityLink, epay, miky, Oyster, Mitsubishi Motor Corporation, SP AusNet, GM Volt, Better Place, Portus, ChargePoint, Downer EDI, Cohda Wireless, Opal Smartcard, CellOPark, Divvy, Uber, AirBnB

Technologies mentioned in this report include:

electric (EV), smart cars, Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PHEV), Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Vehicle to Grid (V2G), automatic train protection (ATP), smart card ticketing, C-ITS, TMC, NBN, ITS-A, vehicle-to-external communications (V2X)