Minister for Roads and Road Safety Jaala Pulford today announced a $3.5 million grant to Telstra and Lexus Australia to run Australia’s first connected vehicle field trial using advanced 4G mobile networks.

The Telstra/Lexus trial will allow cars to connect directly to each other and, through cloud servers, to traffic management centres and other services using “Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)” technology.

Cellular V2X is a new version of 4G, customised for connected vehicles rather than mobile phones.

As part of the Labor Government’s $9 million Towards Zero Connected and Automated Vehicle Trial Grants Program Telstra, Lexus Australia, VicRoads and TAC will better understand this life-saving technology, with a view to making it available on production vehicles in coming years.

The grant has been awarded to develop, test and research Lexus vehicles fitted with Cellular V2X technology, as well as advanced driver assist features including crash warning systems and lane keeping assist.

Initial trials will begin on Victorian test tracks later this month, with on-road trials set to begin in 2019.

The grant program is managed by VicRoads and the TAC through the Towards Zero Action Plan to support industry to research a range of on-road initiatives to benefit road safety on metropolitan and regional roads.