S'pore eyes self-driving push to boost public transport network

Singapore is poised to make a big push for self-driving vehicles to be deployed across the island in the next five years, to strengthen the public transport network.

- Kok Yufeng

It is a key plank in Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow's plan to make public transport more attractive by reducing journey times to work, especially for those living in Housing Board estates farther from the city centre.

This comes more than a decade after Singapore first started testing self-driving technology.

"It relieves our public transport system of one key constraint, which is manpower," Mr Siow said. "And it will add to the range of options that people have in HDB estates."

In an interview on June 11 – less than three weeks into his new role – Mr Siow laid out a vision of deploying smaller-capacity driverless vehicles "fairly extensively" on fixed routes within HDB estates.

These routes can be changed as needed, with self-driving minibuses and shuttles taking people to transport nodes during peak hours, and then places such as polyclinics or community centres during off-peak times.

"I think that will be a significant addition to our public transport network and the technology is already here," Mr Siow added.

He pointed to San Francisco, where Waymo robotaxis have become ubiquitous, and Guangzhou, which he plans to visit at the end of June to see the development of self-driving vehicles there.

Mr Siow's priority is to reduce public transport journey times to work, especially for estates farther from the city centre, such as Tengah, Punggol, Jurong West and Pasir Ris.

He wants to do so by making HDB estates more walkable and increasing the density of bus networks – plans that he shared during an earlier doorstop interview in his Brickland ward in Chua Chu Kang GRC.