The shortage of bus and truck drivers in Singapore has spurred its ministry of transport to research autonomous vehicle operation to cope with future demand for logistics and public transport.
Reuters reports that Singapore recently revealed its future vision of passengers commuting in driverless buses along roads and motorways populated by platoons of autonomous trucks following a single driver.
Due to its limited availability of land and workforce, the city-state hopes that autonomous vehicles will encourage its residents to use more shared vehicles and public transport, and avoid further congestion on its roads.
“Trying to look for bus drivers, truck drivers – a big challenge for us,” said Pang Kin Keong, permanent secretary in the ministry of transport.
“We don’t have a huge population, and these are not some of the professions that Singaporeans aspire to,” says Pang
Pang made this statement to Reuters after taking a ride in a driverless car – a modified Mitsubishi Motors Corp electric vehicle with a top speed of 30kph.
Plans to streamline Singapore’s transport future have begun with two self-driving vehicles going through their paces in an estate that is home to research facilities, and educational institutes report Reuters.
One vehicle is run by the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) with the National University of Singapore and one by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research.
The government and port operator PSA Corp say they would seek proposals to design and implement autonomous truck platooning trials, in which a fleet of driverless trucks follow a truck driven by a human.
The Singapore government said in June that it was seeking ideas on harnessing autonomous vehicle technology for more land transport options.
Singapore’s Land Transport Authority said it had received proposals from eight applicants, including Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL], BMW AG and the Toyota group’s trading arm, Toyota Tsusho Corp.
