SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Monday (Apr 10) said it has inked a partnership agreement with ST Kinetics to develop and trial autonomous buses.
Under the agreement, ST Kinetics will develop and integrate the autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies onto two 40-seater electric buses that can be deployed to serve fixed and scheduled services for intra- and inter-town travel in the future, LTA said.
To navigate autonomously, the buses will use a satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) and a suite of sensors to scan and determine their location and immediate surroundings. The buses will also have radars and sonars that are able to detect other vehicles and pedestrians up to 200m ahead, it added.
ST Kinetics is also working to improve the autonomous buses’ ability to navigate during heavy rain, up from the current 10mm of rain an hour to 30mm an hour, the press release said.
JURONG ISLAND, NUS CAMPUS POSSIBLE TRIAL LOCATIONS
The three-and-a-half year project will see these buses tested in various environments. LTA is working with stakeholders such as the National University of Singapore (NUS) as well as JTC to look at suitable trial locations, which can potentially include Jurong Island and NUS’ campus, LTA said.
The development of these buses will aim to cover as many scenarios faced by bus feeder services as possible, and in the longer term, the trial could be extended to public roads in towns to enhance intra-town travel, the agency added.
“Currently, most AV technology developers are focusing their efforts on developing self-driving cars,” said Mr Lam Wee Shann, chief technology officer at LTA.
“Singapore’s need for high-capacity vehicles to address commuters’ peak-hour demands presents an opportunity for companies such as ST Kinetics to develop autonomous buses to address this latent demand.”
The proposal from ST Kinetics, the land systems and specialty vehicles arm of ST Engineering, had been shortlisted under LTA’s Request for Information issued in June 2015 on how AV technology can be harnessed as part of mobility concepts such as mobility on-demand and autonomous buses.
This is the fourth such agreement signed, following partnerships with the Energy Research Institute @ NTU, Delphi and nuTonomy, said the agency.
