CUTTING-EDGE technology where engineers test futuristic cars, the former airport base in Cudal just landed an additional investment of $9.5 million dollars in government funding.
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With massive upgrades planned for the site, it's a vision that could see the Central West become the leader in autonomous vehicle technology across the Southern Hemisphere.
The Cabonne testing base, which opened in 2019 as the Future Mobility Testing and Research Centre, has been trialing the latest automotive technology since its inception - now, the latest funding is about to take it to a whole new level, again.
"This new investment of 9.5 million will include one million dollars to develop a masterplan for the Southern Hemisphere's first government-run testing centre for emerging vehicle technology," minister for regional transport and roads, Sam Farraway said.
"Our goal is to develop Australia's first certification site for driverless vehicles [and] we want to include simulated city scenarios, pedestrian interaction test zones and dynamic driverless vehicle test environments, rain, tunnels and dirt roads."
Just some of the world-class facility's upcoming plans to be trialed at the site, a fresh intersection will soon be built, which stretches 400 metres along a new one kilometre intersection of road.
As such, this latest grant paves the way for additional infrastructure at the centre, while also creating new roles for local employment.
"These upgrades deliver an economic boost to local businesses by generating at least two million dollars in revenue each year through commercial testing opportunities," Mr Farraway said.
"Bringing the facility in line with the 2023 local and international testing requirements will [also] see the facility's capability further expand to accommodate the growing breadth of active safety testing required by independent safety authority, ANCAP."
The Australasian New Car Assessment Program's chief executive, Carla Hoorweg says the benefits to consumers will also deliver a flow-on effect for safer vehicle fleet, giving Australians access to "world-class" vehicle testing facilities right on the country's own soil.
"The upgrades means vehicles can be tested to the latest, globally-recognised safety standards," Ms Hoorweg said, "and ensure manufacturers are encouraged to supply newer, safer vehicles to our market."
Future Mobility Testing and Research Centre's acting director, Megan Sharkey says she was excited for people to see how the company physically tests cars by using robotic technology.
"People actually getting to sit in the technology and see what we do do is really exciting for us here today," Ms Sharkey said.
"We welcome the investment from the NSW government and our partners here today, and we're especially excited for everyone to experience what we do, learning more about it and the industry, and the benefits for safety and sustainability of our network."
Chief executive officer of the National Transport Research Organisation and CEO of the Australian Road Research Board, Michael Caltabiano describes the further benefits of car technology safeguarding the future and national death toll - particularly for rural residents and country roads.
"Rural and regional Australia is the focus for road safety, as it has to be; because two thirds of all road deaths happen in regional Australia and they happen because we don't have the road condition matched with the vehicle standards to stop this 'run off the road, hit a tree and die'," Mr Caltabiano said.
Mr Caltabiano says the future will ultimately be "the vehicle smarts", where a full, three dimensional digital footprint of the road is fed back to the car - even at a 100 kilomotres an hour.
"So, the future, and why we're here, is to get vehicles operating smarter and building infrastructure that enables those vehicles to use all of their features - to make sure that the white lines are on the road, to remove the obstacles from the verges of roads," he said.
The electronic vehicle would then automatically adjust its speed to the road conditions and safely traverse the road environment, while also linking those vehicle features to the car through cutting-edge "cloud-based" technology.
"The vehicles of the future will then download that cloud-based signal and drive to the digital footprint of the road," Mr Caltabiano said.
"And the next step is to then augment the human interaction with the vehicle and let the car behave much more predictably, which is what we're working towards with EV 2022 - which is about taking the community on the journey to understand what the technology is and then trust it into the future."
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