The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this inquiry by the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee into the importance of a viable, safe, sustainable and efficient road transport industry. The Academy has recently completed significant research on Australia’s technology readiness in the transport industry, which we are pleased to share with you to assist with the Committee’s work.
A key priority area for the Academy is to help foster industry technology readiness: the preparedness of Australian industry to adapt, adopt and develop emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and the internet of things.
The Academy recently released the first report of a three‐year research project on this topic, looking at emerging technologies in the transport sector. We identified sustainability and climate change, productivity and health as the three key challenges that will need to be addressed within the transport sector over the next decade.
Specifically, the transport sector will need to lower emissions, improve the efficient movement of people and freight, and reduce transport-related deaths and serious injuries. The deployment of connected and autonomous vehicles, low and zero-emissions vehicles using alternative fuels, high-frequency mass transit and intelligent transport systems are potential solutions to these challenges.