Photo ©2017 David Camus - North of  Warakurna

It’s a Journey (are we driving it?)

The first trials of autonomous (unmanned vehicles) are sneaking onto the shores of Australia. Is our legislation ready? Is the government ready? Are the public informed? Where are we going with this

I meet many, many people in my pocket money job each day, all sorts of people, from DG’s through Architects to dancers, and I would estimate that less than 5% understand what a fully autonomous car is, what it will change and the fact that we are well under way with autonomous testing both overseas and locally. They are even more surprised when I explain that 400 tonne trucks waddle their way through 1000's Km's of the Pilbara to the coast every day in WA, all controlled out of Perth.

Where am I going with this?

We need to communicate, we need to inform. We know that when we release public the information is going to shock and surveys will be released that show how 60% of Australians do NOT want unmanned vehicles. We also know that this will change as the early adopters keep pushing and the bell curve moves forward.

I am a strong believer in providing all information to the public, the good, bad and evil. If we do not, google will do it on our behalf.

So to the Government communicators, please think about what to communicate and when, get the 10 year plan into operation (it’ll be condensed into 3-5 years anyway), to the trial operators, look at how the trials are being released in the UK. They have gone through the same issues with “it won’t happen”; “It can’t happen”; “It shouldn’t happen”; “What happened?”; “When did this happen?”; “I like this idea!”.

It will happen, either by stealth or by our guidance.

David Camus Program Director LKT Consulting