Committee for Lorne – Lorne Men’s Shed visit to Linfox’s Automotive Proving Ground

How often is it we don’t know what exciting developments are happening in our backyard and region?

On Friday May 3, on an absolutely beautiful day on the Surf Coast, about 20 shedders from the Lorne and District Men’s Shed visited the Linfox AARC Automotive Proving Ground near Anglesea.

The proving ground was purchased by Lindsay Fox in 1991 after International Harvester had been in receivership. Did Lindsay have a vision that 30 years later it would be set up as a proving ground for autonomous (driverless) vehicles?

Probably not. However, at the time his vision was to have Australia’s best proving ground for driver training and testing for new developments in safety for vehicles. Today the proving ground is an evolution of this vision and the Shedders could see this in action.

The majority of the Shedders came by bus from Lorne with a few driving their own vehicles. All were made extremely welcome by Ari Suss (CEO of AARC and a senior executive within the Linfox group), Prof David McInnes (an advisor to the Linfox Group on development of autonomous vehicles and previous CEO of AARC) and Bernard Martin (AARC Member – Business Manager).

Ari gave a video overview of the facility – the facility is equal to the best in the world. For those interested in more detail, visit aarconline.com.

David talked about the developments and challenges in moving to a society where possibly within a decade, the majority of vehicles will be electric and autonomous. Although predictions on the timeframe may vary, there does not seem to be an argument about driverless/autonomous vehicles Many questions were asked by the shedders. One of Lorne’s better-known
identities was heard to go up to David afterwards and say it was one of the best presentations he had heard. All shedders would agree. A couple of points to share from this presentation:
• Vehicle manufacturers are redefining their business from manufacturing to providing mobility solutions.
• Vehicles will talk to each other.
• People won’t own cars – it will be like calling an Uber. Think of the disruption that this will cause. A few shedders were not quite sure on ownership (but will be autonomous) -maybe this is a generation mindset.
• The most challenging time will be when 50 per cent of vehicles are driverless. David pointed out this is no different from when travel moved from horse to car.

That was just a few points.

Grant Hausler from Swift Navigation, a San Francisco based tech firm building centimetre-accurate GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) technology and a cloud-based GNSS Corrections Service to power a world of autonomous
vehicles, gave a quick overview of why they have established an operation in Australia.

Linfox is now looking at the next stage to develop the digitised infrastructure at AARC for testing of autonomous vehicles.

After the presentations, all shedders had a tour of the facility and a demonstration of Bosch’s ESP (Electronic Stability Program) braking system. Several shedders went in the demonstration car being tested on the Ceramic and Basalt tile skid pads.

On the tour of 1,000-hectares, it was certainly noticeable how well the facility is maintained – a trademark of Linfox.

After the drive around a bush barbecue was provided and Rheinmetall MAN and Thales gave the shedders an opportunity to see the massive vehicles that they are building and testing for the Australian Government.

At the conclusion of lunch, Allan Walls thanked the Linfox staff for sharing their future vision with us and hospitality.

After lunch Keith Miller and Sam Johnson with a couple of other Shedders had the opportunity to be taken around a section of the fourwheel- drive track with Bernard.

What a great day and experience and many thanks to the Linfox Group.

David Worth
Lorne & District Men’s Shed