(SINGAPORE)
A partnership deal has been signed to put driverless busses on the streets of Singapore.
Two 40-seater electric buses integrated with autonomous vehicle technologies are to be built. Capable of navigating city and inter city routes, they will be fitted with radars and sonars can detect people and other vehicles up to 200m ahead.
The three-and-a-half year project to develop and trial autonomous buses will be delivered through a collaboration between the island state’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) and ST Kinetics, the land systems and specialty vehicles arm of ST Engineering.
“Currently, most AV technology developers are focusing their efforts on developing self-driving cars. 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. This is also in line with the whole-of-government effort to explore and apply smart technologies to improve our lives. We are excited to partner ST Kinetics to develop autonomous electric buses, that if successfully deployed, will benefit commuters and greatly change the way we travel,” said LTA’s Chief Technology Officer, Mr Lam Wee Shann.
Dr Lee Shiang Long, President of ST Kinetics added: “We are honoured to be given the opportunities to shape Singapore’s urban mobility solutions. This will open up the horizon of our team of engineers, for them to participate in a new and growth segment with a technology that is still going through various phases of development.”
