ITS Australia has announced the winners of its 2019 Awards, recognising the outstanding projects and people that have significantly advanced the country’s transportation technology throughout the year.
Now in their 10th year, the annual ITS Australia National Awards recognise professional ITS expertise and excellence, while also helping to raise awareness across all levels of government and community about the benefits of ITS technology to the country’s residents, cities and communities, the economy, environment, and transportation. Presented at a ceremony in Adelaide, the 2019 award winners were:
- The Automated Vehicle Award was shared between – Busways for BusBot, an on-demand, shared automated vehicle pilot for regional public transport, the first Australian study of driverless buses in regional communities;
- The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads for the Cooperative and Highly Automated Driving (CHAD) Pilot, which delivered a prototype SAE Level 4 Cooperative and Automated Vehicle (CAV) known as ZOE2 and was undertaken to overcome barriers to the safe and successful introduction of driverless vehicles to Australia;
- The Government Award – Department of Transport Victoria for Cross Boundary Incident Management through Multi-Party Managed Motorway Control System Centre-to-Centre (C2C) Interface, which delivered an integrated network management approach that allows the state and private road operator to implement or further enhance the interface between control systems to include or expand device type control and automation of system responses;
- The Industry Award – Uber Australia for its Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) innovation in partnership with Transport for NSW that saw the launch of two products in Sydney that will significantly impact public transport networks, comprising the FerryConnect service that joins waterbourne travel with surrounding suburbs, and Journey Planning that integrates the city’s public transport into the Uber app, allowing users to plan and map their trip, as well as compare the cost and duration of public transport with Uber services in real-time;
- The Research Award – Monash University for developing the Virtual Reality Autonomous Vehicle (VRAV) augmented driving simulator that enables on-road testing of autonomous vehicles, offering a potential means to test drivers’ responses to unsafe driving conditions;
- The Max Lay Lifetime Achievement Award – Brian Smith, a leader in the advancement of Australian navigation technology. In 1995 he played a major role in developing the first digital navigation map available in Australia. Then in 2000, Smith played another key role in the transition of the White and Yellow Pages to online electronic directories, which changed the way people access location-based content today;
- The Young Professional Award – Yale Zhuxiao Wong, a doctoral candidate and research analyst at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies in the University of Sydney Business School, who will be sponsored by ITS Australia to attend the 17th ITS Asia Pacific Forum, which will be held in Brisbane next May.
“Once again, our awards nominees and winners demonstrate the excellence and innovation that makes our industry a world leader. ITS Australia is making progress that is equal to, if not surpassing, that of our overseas counterparts, said ITS Australia’s president, Dean Zabrieszach. “We are internationally recognised as world-leading, and bring together industry, government, multinational corporations, start-ups, and research organisations to help shape future transport. Our National Awards are a great opportunity to reflect on the innovative nature of Australian technology development and we congratulate the winners, and all the nominees.”
