Plan for driverless car testing
Driverless cars are a step closer to zipping around part of Christchurch’s empty red zone area.
The NZMobility Lab scheme aims to attract private companies to Christchurch to test autonomous vehicles (AV) and other transport technologies.
Land Information NZ Christchurch land and property group manager Jeremy Barr said Linz (which manages the red zone on behalf of the Crown) and the NZ Transport Agency had confirmed a final draft of the lease agreement and the contract was ready to be signed. Barr said a five-year lease would be put in place so Christchurch City Council-owned roads could be used for autonomous vehicle testing and support system testing.
The site is bounded by Pages Rd, Anzac Dr, Westland Grove and Morganwood and Wairoa streets – an area of about 34 hectares. The space could be restricted to the public during periods of active testing, but would remain available for public walking access otherwise.
When signed, it will be the most significant temporary lease for the 602 hectares of earthquake-damaged land, with other projects stalling due to blockages with the application process.
NZMobility Lab chair Jim Harland said that while getting the lease to operate was an important step, it was only one part of the requirements to set up the testing area.
‘‘The licence won’t and can’t commence until a traffic management plan specific to the testing of autonomous vehicles is approved, and a health and safety site plan put in place.’’
Harland said public safety was the number one priority.
The NZMobility Lab still had to ensure it had processes ready to work within the existing regulations that allow autonomous vehicles to be authorised to be on the road.
Harland said this was a new area for New Zealand and would take some time to work through, and it would potentially be months before the NZMobility Lab was able to offer AV manufacturers a ready test area in the red zone.
Manufacturers would not commit to putting money into the test area until those requirements were in place, Harland said.
‘‘NZTA’s contribution is holding the licence for the [red zone test area], understanding the legal requirements for testing and trialling autonomous vehicles in their role as regulator, ensuring they are complied with and ensuing technology that should be managed by government agencies is in place.’’
NZTA would fund some of the road repairs needed for the project. The cost of this has not been assessed yet.
If manufacturers require specific roading conditions, they may be asked to fund it themselves.
As well as driverless vehicles, the testing would involve transport technology such as connecting vehicles to real-time data, high definition mapping, and fare payment systems.
The programme would not be limited to the red zone.
The NZMobility Lab was formerly called the Christchurch Mobility Lab.
Autonomous vehicles are already being tested in Christchurch on a small scale – Christchurch Airport has a driverless electric shuttle trial.
Elsewhere in Canterbury, an autonomous electric flying taxi called Cora is being tested, with hopes a service could be running in the skies of New Zealand within six years.