Australia is steadily developing a supportive environment for driverless cars, ranking 15th – a notch below Germany – among 30 countries assessed by KPMG for their readiness for autonomous vehicles.

Singapore took out the top spot while New Zealand ranked 17th and China 20th in the study, which ranks countries by technology and innovation, infrastructure, consumer acceptance and policy and legislation, which Australia placed highest in.

“To be top-ranked in policy and regulation in a year where Australia has suffered from the bushfires, floods and now the COVID-19 shutdown is no mean achievement,” KPMG Partner Praveen Thakur said.

“We could use the pandemic to leapfrog the implementation of autonomous minibuses in Australian roads.”

Over the past year trials and regular services of driverless minibuses have been carried out in Chile, Denmark, Finland and Norway, and tests of full-length autonomous buses in Singapore, Spain and the UK.

KPMG says Australia’s strengths lie in its regulatory environment, its willingness to consider autonomy in infrastructure projects and policies, and the range of trials being undertaken across the nation.

More could be done by companies and organisations involved in the autonomous vehicle sector to engage the public in advance of the technology being widely available, it says.

“The industry tends to be passive in communicating and engaging with the community,” Mr Thakur said. “It would be beneficial if it could take up more of a leadership role.”,

Australia’s states, territories and federal governments were early in reforming laws to facilitate future use of autonomous vehicles. The work that is continuing under the National Transport Commission’s Automated Vehicle Program.

Transport for NSW has been testing autonomous buses since 2017 while WA’s RAC began offering residents of Busselton the opportunity to ride in its driverless, electric Intellibus on public roads, as well as continuing an earlier trial in South Perth that started in 2016.

Australia has improved its preparedness for the introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs) over the past year, scoring top marks on availability of high-performance mobile internet.

Now in its third year, the Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index ranks 30 countries on 28 key indicators of autonomous vehicle preparedness.