Singapore: The island state has taken another small step towards an ambition to remove drivers from the bus wheel.
Singapore’s Land Transport Authority and the Economic Development Board, which issued early this year a call for collaboration (CFC) to deploy autonomous buses and shuttles, have received responses from several quarters.
The two statutory boards would not reveal which companies had responded, but The Sunday Times understands they are likely to include ST Engineering, ComfortDelGro, SMRT, EasyMile, Nanyang Technological University and NuTonomy, which have all been involved in autonomous vehicle trials for some time.
ComfortDelGro and French start-up EasyMile, for instance, are running a pilot service on the National University of Singapore campus.
ST Engineering is putting such buses on trial on Sentosa.
In March, the Government-linked group signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD to develop autonomous bus platforms.
ST Engineering said it will form a consortium in response to the CFC for the pilot deployment of autonomous shuttles.
These buses will ply in Punggol, Tengah and the Jurong Innovation District from as early as 2022.
ST Engineering previously worked with BYD on the Strobo range of autonomous material handling equipment such as forklifts and pallet trucks.
The CFC, which closed on July 31, is now in the “clarification stage”.
“We are currently assessing the applications and are unable to disclose further details at this time, ” the LTA and EDB said in a joint response to queries from ST.
Observers expect the boards to make an announcement possibly at the 26th Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress from Oct 21-25.
The event, hosted by Singapore for the first time, includes technical visits, including one to the Cetran AV Test Centre in Jurong. — The Straits Times/ANN
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