Sentosa to trial self-driving vehicles from early-2016

The trial will start in January 2016 and the public could get to ride on the driverless vehicles from as early as March or April.
Olivia Siong, Channel NewsAsia 13 Oct 15;

SINGAPORE: From beach trams and buses, to segways and the latest intra-island cable car, there are a myriad of transport options already available for visitors to head to Sentosa Island - and choices are set to grow.

Come January 2016, Sentosa will be testing out self-driving vehicles to provide on-demand point-to-point shuttle services. The project is a collaboration between Sentosa, the Transport Ministry and ST Kinetics.

Visitors will be able to call for the shuttle on their smartphones or at information kiosks around the island. They will then be ferried to their destination of choice on Sentosa.

A WELCOMED IDEA

Visitors welcomed the idea. Said 28-year-old Adrian Buang, a Singaporean visiting the island: "It reminds me of Jurassic Park actually! It's hassle free. Basically anybody can just grab and go."

"People come back to Sentosa even though they have been here before,” said Vyomesh Chandan, 41, visiting from Cambodia. “I'm sure I'd want to come back for that, sounds exciting enough."

"It'll be more convenient for people with children especially, because going up and down from the buses or rails etcetera may not be as convenient as compared to personalised vehicle going in,” said another visitor from Singapore, Samantha Lee, 27.

41-year-old Andrea Liu, living in Singapore with two kids says it will help with long queues.

"Having these trams and buses are great, but sometimes you're in long queues and you want to go to a specific destination. If (driverless cars are) available around the island ... (we'll) have more choice in transporting us around Sentosa," she said.

TRIAL TO BE DONE IN THREE PHASES

Sentosa says the trial will be done in three phases. The first could last about three to four months and will take place on service roads with minimal traffic.

Phase 2 will be carried out on service roads near Sentosa's beach areas, which see light human and vehicular traffic. This phase will likely take three to four months as well and is also when the public will start being allowed onboard.

Phase 3 will then take about a year, when the self-driving vehicles will ply actual roads with regular traffic. The trial will also be a time to work out how these vehicles adapt to conditions on the island.

"We see a lot of slopes that are in Sentosa,” said Mr William Ng, Assistant Director of Operations Planning and Development for Sentosa Leisure Management. “So basically based on electric vehicles we will need to test whether they can actually overcome the slope factors, the gradient factors.

“Also the weather, because we are very near to the sea itself, you're talking about heavy rains and strong winds."

There are also plans to boost Wi-Fi coverage along routes plied by the vehicles. This is expected to improve safety by allowing data from the vehicles to be transmitted to the command centre for monitoring.

"The AV (autonomous vehicle) will actually use this Wi-Fi to transmit data to our command centre whereby they can monitor where the AVs are using GPS or they can do data analysis be it live video streaming to see where the AVs are looking at," said Mr Ng.

Sentosa will decide whether the driverless vehicles will become a permanent feature after the trial. It expects there to be productivity gains in the long run.

The entire study at Sentosa is expected to last for two years. The insights will also help authorities evaluate the possibility of deploying similar self-driving shuttle systems for intra-town travel in other parts of Singapore in the future.

- CNA/ek

Driverless vehicles slated for use in four areas
VALERIE KOH Today Online 13 Oct 15;
SINGAPORE — Efforts to get driverless vehicles to hit Singapore’s roads are picking up speed, as the first four areas the Government wants to roll out this technology were unveiled: Fixed mass transport services for intra- and inter-town travel, on-demand shuttle services, freight transport, and utility operations, such as road sweeping.

Three trials of such vehicles were announced today (Oct 12) by the committee tasked with rolling out the technology in Singapore, with the first one starting as soon as December.

From Dec 1 to Dec 14, visitors to Gardens by the Bay can try out the two Auto Riders that can take up to 10 passengers each around a 1.5km loop. The tourist attraction hopes to use these driverless vehicles to ferry visitors from the middle of next year.

The second trial involves freight transport. The Ministry of Transport (MOT) and port operator PSA today inked a memorandum of understanding to develop and test an autonomous truck platooning system, which involves a driver taking the wheel of one cargo truck, leading one or more driverless trucks through wireless communication.

A Request for Proposals will be launched by December and prototypes will be tested along a 10km route along West Coast Highway, between Brani and Pasir Panjang terminals, over three years.

The third trial is for an on-demand transportation service on Sentosa island. Starting from January next year, the MOT, Sentosa Development Corporation and Singapore Technologies Engineering will start looking at ideas to have self-driving shuttles that visitors can call for either through their smartphones or kiosks placed across the island.

Speaking at a press conference today, MOT’s permanent secretary Pang Kin Keong, also the chairman of the Committee on Autonomous Road Transport in Singapore (CARTS), said: “It’s not the replacement of one driven car today by a driverless car of tomorrow that excites us. What we’re much more interested in is the introduction of new mobility and transportation concepts that can enhance commuter mobility, and the overall public transport experience, especially for the first- and last-mile travel.”

Ideally, this would reduce the reliance on private vehicles, and allow the saved road space to be used for other purposes, he added. Driverless technology can also relieve road congestion and alleviate manpower constraints, said Mr Pang, adding that widespread public use of such vehicles here is possible in the next 10 to 15 years.

The PSA, for instance, said driverless vehicles would reduce its manpower costs, increase productivity and ease traffic flow, as transportation is shifted to off-peak hours.

Mr Pang urged organisations with large campuses or with “transportation or mobility responsibilities” to start studying driverless technology to enhance their efficiency and productivity.

“Self-driving and new mobility concepts can also allow us to dream and imagine a very different new town of the future, with a vastly different, vastly improved living environment ... where the surface is no longer dominated by roads and carparks, by the noise and pollution of cars. Instead, it’s dominated by greenery, pedestrians, cyclists, and clean, quiet, slow-moving and self-driving pods for intra-town and first-last mile commute,” said Mr Pang.

Many countries are studying such technology, said Mr Pang. “But for Singapore, we are driven by the fact that it is an imperative for us,” he added, citing land and manpower constraints.

While the technology is “almost there”, there are still some gaps. These include the ability to navigate in adverse weather conditions and the cost factor. “Because this is fledging technology, a lot of it is quite expensive still. For there to be public widespread deployment, cost needs to come down,” said Mr Pang. Questions had also been raised about liability issues in the event of an accident involving driverless vehicles. Mr Pang said CARTS is looking at a comprehensive liability and regulatory framework for the day-to-day use of driverless vehicles.

The Land Transport Authority’s Chief Executive Chew Men Leong noted that autonomous vehicles are far safer than human-driven cars, given the sensors mounted. “The idea is that using all these sources of information achieves a much higher level of awareness than a normal driver would have,” he said.

Experts interviewed agreed that driverless vehicles are safe.

Dr Walter Theseira, a senior lecturer at UniSIM, said: “This is unlikely to be more dangerous than a person driving it, especially given its faster response time.”

While accidents involving driverless heavy vehicles potentially present more danger, Dr Theseira said “it makes perfect sense to trial the trucks because one of the big usage applications is cargo vehicle movement”.

He added: “These are areas where the vehicles are used all the day and the initial high cost of the autonomous vehicle will be quickly paid for, and by the fact that you don’t have to hire a person to drive it anymore.”

The adoption of autonomous vehicles in the United States have caused a stir because of the drivers that were put out of jobs. Singapore, on the other hand, faces challenges in attracting truck drivers.

Dr Park Byung Joon, a UniSIM adjunct associate professor, said: “If driverless vehicles become a thing for everyone, drivers are going to become a thing of the past. There aren’t going to be taxis and buses. We’re not going to have such jobs in future.

“But we’re still far away from seeing these on the roads. It’ll happen but not so soon. It’s not something we should worry about now,” he added.

Gardens by the Bay’s director of operations Ng Boon Gee said its existing tram drivers can be trained to become visitor guides on the Auto Riders.

Around the world, at least 25 companies have ventured into autonomous vehicle technology. Google has been running trials in Texas and California, while Uber will be partnering the University of Arizona for research. In trials closer to home, robot taxis will start ferrying passengers from their homes to supermarkets in Japan from next March.

In Singapore, A*STAR and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) started running autonomous vehicle trials at one-north since August and October respectively.

A Request for Information relating to autonomous vehicles being used for on-demand transport services and bus services was issued previously. So far, eight proposals from companies such as BMW and Uber have been submitted and trials will start at one-north in the second half of next year.


Driverless vehicles hit the road in trials around Singapore
Christopher Tan, The Straits Times AsiaOne 13 Oct 15;

From as early as December, visitors to Gardens by the Bay will be able to hop on to driverless shuttles that will take them around the sprawling grounds.

The two Auto Riders can each accommodate 10 people and are wheelchair-accessible, with a motorised ramp that deploys and retracts at the touch of a button. The vehicles, which have been tested in Switzerland, are making their Asian debut here as part of a multi-agency autonomous vehicle trial.

Yesterday, the Transport Ministry signed two memoranda of understanding (MOU).

One MOU is with port operator PSA to jointly develop autonomous truck platooning technology for cargo transport between terminals. In truck platooning, several trucks move together like a train, with only a controller in the first to improve productivity. The other MOU is with Sentosa Development Corp and ST Engineering to test self-driving shuttles across Sentosa.

Meanwhile, A*Star's Institute for Infocomm Research and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology have started driverless trials in one-north, while the Nanyang Technological University has been doing the same on its campus.

Permanent Secretary for Transport Pang Kin Keong said yesterday: "Self-driving vehicles can radically transform land transportation in Singapore to address our two key constraints - land and manpower.

"The trials will help us shape the mobility concepts which can meet Singapore's needs, and also gain valuable insights into how we can design our towns of the future to take advantage of this technology."

Unlike autonomous vehicle trials elsewhere, Singapore is focusing on applying the technology to public buses, freight carriers, autonomous taxis and utility operations such as road sweepers.

In buses, the technology will solve Singapore's perennial bus driver shortage. In taxis, the technology allows for many more journeys with a smaller fleet. Such vehicles are far costlier though, but experts believe that the initial outlay will be offset by manpower savings.

A*Star executive director Lee Shiang Long said: "I'm quite confident that Singapore will be the first city to implement this new technology. This is because unlike trials in other countries, which are left pretty much to the private sector, the Government is behind the efforts here."

A*Star converted a Toyota Alphard Hybrid to run autonomously, equipping it with laser sensors that cost as much as a luxury car.

Elsewhere, the Land Transport Authority has received responses from eight firms to a request for information to carry out its own trial in one-north. It will evaluate the proposals, and expects to begin trials by the second half of next year.

When asked how much the Government is investing in all these efforts, Mr Pang would only say "quite a fair bit". But given Singapore's land and labour constraints, going autonomous is "a strong imperative".

European, Japanese, US and Chinese companies - including big names like Google, Bosch and Toyota - are researching in this field.

Some, like Daimler and Tesla, are expected to launch autonomous models in the next five years.

SIM University's adjunct associate professor, Dr Park Byung Joon, said: "I think what Singapore should do is to provide a test bed to attract researchers to come here.

"If not, we might be trying to re-invent the wheel."