ITS Australia National Awards 2019 Finalist

Australia’s first regional automated vehicle initiative, utilising Papercast solar powered e-paper displays

BusBot shortlisted in the Automated Vehicle Award category in this prestigious industry award program

BusBot has been shortlisted as a finalist in the ITS National Awards 2019 Automated Vehicle Awards category. Led by local bus operator Busways, the Cooee Busways On-Demand Public Transport initiative has also been nominated for an Industry Award. As a collaborating partner, Papercast solar powered e-paper displays provide accurate travel information to service users at the designated bus stops.

The ITS Australia National Awards 2019 is a celebration of excellence in the Intelligent Transport Systems industry, and is proudly hosted by ITS Australia annually. The program reinforces Australian ITS capability and its position as a world leader in ITS. The winner will be announced at a presentation night dinner on 21 November 2019 in Adelaide.

BusBot is an on-demand, shared automated vehicle pilot for regional public transport. It is the first Australian study of driverless buses in regional communities that is gaining international interest and proving a use-case providing real value to the elderly.

Project development, safety assurance and operation were successfully delivered, developing a sustainable business model and blueprint which can be scaled to multiple operations around the country to accelerate the safe introduction of AVs onto Australian roads. The technical capabilities were proven through three-phases of increasing complexity, passing all safety tests and providing evidence to show AVs do have potential for regional Australian transport.

“Busways is honoured to have been shortlisted in the Automated Vehicle category for the BusBot Project. We’d like to thank our Busways project teams and our project partners, including Papercast, who have worked to deliver this quality trial for the past year. Thank you to ITS Australia for the opportunity. We look forward to attending the awards in November,” a Busways spokesperson said.

Papercast solar powered e-paper bus stop displays provide BusBot controllers with a platform for direct real-time communication with customers at the bus stop. The screens show live arrival times as well as information about the route, the driverless vehicles and the overall trial. The controller can reassure customers in real-time, show additional service information and dynamically push notifications to a route or area. The displays also come with a text to speech function, so with a push of a button it will announce the next service to arrive at the stop.

“We are thrilled to be part of this cutting-edge project, and that the hard work of the collaborating partners is being recognised in this way,” comments Robert Bicket, CEO at Papercast. “Wishing Busbot the very best of luck at the awards presentation”.

Guests at the awards presentation night dinner will welcome the Hon Stephan Knoll MP, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government and Minister for Planning, South Australia Government as guest speaker. He will provide an update about smart technologies being developed and deployed across the state to better manage South Australia’s transport network.