Australia’s National Transport Commission (NTC) teased on Thursday that autonomous vehicles are on the horizon.
Tesla’s country director for the Australian market Thom Drew stated earlier this month that there were “no regulatory blockers” and the company is finalizing validation before a phased rollout beginning with Hardware 4-equipped vehicles.
In a new official video released, the NTC said, “Autonomous Vehicles are coming to Australia, soon.” As initially reported by the blog TechAU, the comment was the first public statement on self-driving cars in over a year.
The agency said it is working with federal and state authorities on an end‑to‑end legal and safety framework to govern the commercial use of autonomous vehicles.
Tesla launched its robotaxi service last month in Austin, Texas.
However — and despite the geofenced area having already doubled — the soft launch is still limited to select customers and requires the presence of a safety monitor in the passenger seat.
The company released mid‑July footage showing tests of its Full Self‑Driving (FSD) system in Sydney.
Tesla’s other autonomous and semi‑autonomous pilots have spanned across the UK, Spain, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, but it was the first time these trials in Australia were confirmed by the company.
At the second quarter shareholder deck, Tesla stated that it is continuing to prepare for the launch of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised software in Europe and a “broader release” in China later this year, pending regulatory approval.
“We continue to prepare for broader release of FSD (Supervised) in China this year, pending regulatory approval,” Tesla wrote in its Q2 earnings shareholder deck about China.
The Elon Musk-led firm has also strengthened its presence in Australian energy infrastructure this week with a new $100 million Megapack battery storage facility in Victoria.
The 185 MW / 370 MWh installation can power roughly 350,000 homes for two hours.
