In the past decade, the number of road accidents as a direct result of people’s negligence, has been steadily escalating. Both pedestrians and motorists alike have displayed a shocking lack of self-control when it comes to checking their phone, texting or taking selfies – either while crossing the road or while driving. So, the idea of self-driving or driverless cars does hold a lot of appeal. After all, it will not only lead to fewer road accidents, it will also free up a lot of time. Your daily commute to work can be a relaxing time, where you eat your breakfast and check your Instagram, while your car handles the driving. 

 

The Infrastructure

The biggest question is – does Australia have the infrastructure to accommodate driverless cars? A recent report ranked Australia 14th out of 20 countries when it comes to autonomous vehicle readiness. One of the key reasons for this, experts say, is the lack of a local automotive industry, which in turn means there’s a lack of avenue for research and development as far as driverless cars are concerned. Currently, Australia just does not have the infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles. 

 

The Six-month Trial 

But there’s hope for the future, as the Australian government are currently carrying out a six-month trial, using eight to ten cars fitted with semi-autonomous systems, to determine issues with the current infrastructure and to record incidents. The idea is to better understand the infrastructure needs, if we were to make self-driving cars a reality in the future. 

Cars will have to be able to read road markings correctly, maintain a safe distance from other vehicles in front of them and be able to handle scenarios such as heavy winds or rain efficiently and without jeapordising anyone’s safety, be it the passengers or the pedestrians or other drivers on the road. For autonomous vehicles to become mainstream, traffic will also have to be controlled by computer systems, where data is transferred from the traffic control systems to the autonomous cars in real-time. 

 

The Conclusion 

With Australia’s current lack of infrastructure and investment potential, it looks like it will take another 10 years for driverless cars to become readily available to the public. But for that to happen, an infrastructure overhaul and heavy investment is needed. And when self-driving cars are here, you can sell your car by getting a cash for car quote from a reliable car buyer and move on to autonomous vehicles.