Telstra announced it will work with a regional transport department to trial cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) technologies in a connected vehicle pilot project scheduled to start in late 2019.

In a statement the operator said it will deliver LTE data connectivity for more than 500 vehicles and 40 roadside stations for a nine-month trial being prepared by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR).

The transport authority aims to study how C-ITS can improve road safety and contribute towards a vision of cutting deaths and serious injuries on the state’s roads to zero.

TMR will develop Australia’s first security credential management system for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) applications, Telstra stated.

C-ITS equipped vehicles will be able to communicate with each other, roadside infrastructure, road operations systems and cloud-based data sharing systems to relay safety-related messages to drivers.

The trial is Telstra’s latest move in the connected vehicle space: in 2017 it joined forces with the New South Wales (NSW) government and a number of partners to launch the first driverless vehicle trial in the state; and in 2016 teamed with Cohda Wireless to trial V2X technology.