Transurban announced a partnership with  Silicon Valley-based autonomous driving software company Plus as it looks to advance its automated freight programme.

The partnership will build on the success of Transurban’s first self-driving truck trial on CityLink and the Monash Freeway last year, to explore how Plus’s Level 4 autonomous driving technology, combined with smart road infrastructure, could help make trucking safer, more efficient, and more sustainable in Australia.

“This partnership will support long-term opportunities for automated freight, including potential benefits to reduce congestion and improve road safety and traffic flow, and is a continuation of Transurban’s work in this area,” said Transurban CEO, Scott Charlton.’

“Automated transport technologies are going to transform the way we move goods around cities, and with vital connections between ports and other freight hubs, our roads offer ideal conditions to facilitate this new technology.”

Starting in 2017, Transurban has rolled out 11 successful trials of fully and partially automated vehicles on motorways across Australia and North America to test how they respond to road infrastructure.

Transurban’s 2022 trial was the first time in Australia a highly automated self-driving truck was tested in live traffic conditions on public motorways.