LTA's driverless public bus trial draws interest from global players

Besides WeRide offshoot, bidders include tie-ups with Causeway Link, China's BYD

- Kok Yufeng

The local offshoot of Chinese self-driving technology company WeRide and a consortium led by Malaysian bus operator Handal Indah, also known as Causeway Link, are among four companies that have submitted bids to participate in a trial of autonomous public bus services here.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) called a tender in January seeking proposals for the trial, which is slated to start from mid-2026, on two public bus routes—one in Marina Bay and Shenton Way, and the other in one-north in Buona Vista.

The tender, which closed on June 9 and is expected to be awarded by the end of 2025, drew four bids in all.

Apart from WeRide (Singapore) and the Handal Indah consortium, the other two tenderers are vehicle distributor Cycle & Carriage Automotive and another consortium comprising MKX Technologies, Zhidao Network Technology (Beijing) and the Singapore subsidiary of Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD.

Zhidao Network Technology is a company linked to Chinese autonomous driving start-up Mogo Auto, which is backed by technology conglomerate Tencent.

Meanwhile, according to business records, MKX Technologies was incorporated in Singapore in April and has two shareholders.

The majority owner is X Star Technology, a Singapore subsidiary of Chinese online vehicle financing company Yixin Group, and the minority owner is MK.X, a Japanese electric car-sharing company.