Ride-sharing giant Uber could be bringing its high-flying uberAIR service to Sydney and Melbourne, as the company looks for 'launch cities' to trial its latest program...
Koenigsegg, Swedish maker of wild hypercars like the Regera (above), has announced it will open its first factory-backed dealership in Australia later this year. Scheduled to launch in June, the company confirmed its vehicles will be available through Prodigy Automotive in conjunction with Lorbek Luxury Cars in Melbourne, Victoria...
Proposed changes to the Victorian Road Safety Act and Crimes Act will open the door for more advanced autonomous tests on public roads. Should the new amendments pass, self-driving test permit holders would be subject to the same legal obligations as human drivers under the current Road Safety Act and Crimes Act...
A Holden pilot will allow Melbourne metro buyers to research, spec and buy cars online, removing the need to visit a showroom. The company's research indicates 30 per cent of consumers would consider buying a car online...
VicRoads is teaming up with BOSCH, the TAC, Geoscience Australia and the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information to test a world-first satellite positioning system in Albert Park. The test is part of a wider Australasian trial of a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS), backed by $12 million in funding from the Australian Government and $2 million from the New Zealand Government...
Proposed changes to Victorian drink-driving laws would see first-time offenders lose their licence for three months. Anyone caught driving with a blood-alcohol content (BAC) between 0.05 and 0.069 face licence cancellation and disqualification for three months, while all drivers caught over the 0.05 limit will be forced to have an alcohol interlock fitted to their cars for six months...
Revised regulations could allow autonomous vehicles on California roads without a human minder in the driver seat next year, but it could be five or six years before we see similar tests on local roads. Proposed changes to the California DMV Driverless Testing and Deployment Regulations remove the need for “physical control by a natural person sitting in the vehicle’s driver’s seat” during tests...
Tesla has continued the expansion of its charging network in Australia, with five new Superchargers in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. A charge station in Horsham means the Supercharger link between Melbourne and Adelaide is now complete, while stations in Keith, Clare Valley and the Adelaide city centre are designed to allow Model S and Model X owners to travel between Adelaide and Brisbane without running flat...
An independent review says Victoria's Graduated Licensing System is saving the lives of young drivers in the state. Luke Donnellan, minister for roads and road safety, announced the results of the study this week - including the statistic that drivers who have been through the new system are 20 per cent less likely to be involved in a serious collision in their first two years of driving...
Welcome to another instalment of our little Top Driving Roads series, intended to highlight some of the best, most challenging, and most fun roads we (occasionally) get to drive on. To clarify, driving isn’t always about going fast; we want to make that bit clear...
Victorian toll road provider EastLink has announced the first major survey of motorists's attitudes toward autonomous vehicles, which will help to track forthcoming changes into the future. The company is expecting thousands of responses to the new survey, which will measure perceptions and attitudes to driverless cars, with the study to be repeated yearly...
Victoria's Andrews Labor Government has announced it will offer short-term payment options for vehicle registration from 1 January 2018. With the annual fee now sitting at $800.80 for light vehicle registration, Victorians will soon have the choice of additional three-month or sixth-month options intended to help ease the cost-of-living pressures for millions of people...
The Castlemaine Billy Cart Challenge will be making a return to the Victorian gold-mining town, after a 14-year hiatus. Known as the home of hot rods, organisers also like to claim Castlemaine, Victoria, as the Billy Cart capital. The event has had a rollercoaster history, beginning in 1949 as the Apex Soap Box Derby...
The 2017 BMW 530d will report for duty as a highway patrol car "by early-2018", as part of the Bavarian manufacturer's new vehicle supply partnership with Victoria Police. Up to 80 of the diesel-powered sedans will be patrolling Victorian roads within the next 12-15 months, largely due to the end of local vehicle manufacturing - spelling the demise of the current police crop of Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores...
The Holden Commodore is the most popular option for 'hoon' drivers, according to figures released by Victoria Police today. The report shows that of 2204 vehicles impounded and crushed between July 2015 and December 2016, over 25 per cent of them were Holden Commodores, with an astounding 641 crushed during the period...
Autonomous vehicle technology trials currently underway in Victoria have delivered a first round of results, revealing aspects of infrastructure and technology that must be improved for autonomous systems to reach their full potential. Using current-model vehicles with 'level 2' autonomous technology systems already in market, the trials were first announced in December and have been actively testing in regular daily traffic on the Eastlink corridor...
The Victorian government has started its autonomous driving technology trials, first announced in December last year. Launched to "help Victoria prepare for the future of driverless vehicles", the trial is being carried out in cooperation with roads company Transurban, along with VicRoads and RACV. Manufacturers BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla and Volvo are also involved...
Ford has opened the first of its 'Showroom of the Future' facilities in the southern hemisphere this week, at Bayford Ford in Epping, Victoria. One of only three in the world, the showroom's look and layout was developed in partnership with Fitch Design, which counts McLaren and Adidas among its clients. The new design aims to give customers a digitally-connected retail experience...
Mitsubishi and Geelong-based dealership group Kings Cars have opened an interactive 'vehicle concept' showroom in Westfield Geelong. Joining a slew of shopping centre pop-up shops from a number of brands including Tesla and Subaru, Mitsubishi's new pilot store allows customers to experience the company's range without having to deal with the pressures of a traditional automotive retail environment...
SEA Automotive has delivered the first of nine electric trucks set to hit Victoria's roads in the coming months, as part of the Andrews Labor Government's New Energy Jobs fund. After receiving $517,000 from the Labor Government in October last year to develop a facility to manufacture commercial electric vehicles, SEA delivered the first of its zero-emissions trucks to Kings Transport, an Australian logistics company...
