China's WeRide secures LTA approval to run driverless bus without safety officer in Sentosa
This will be the first autonomous vehicle (AV) in South-east Asia to run without such personnel on board, the company said in a press release on Thursday (Jul 17).
Called the Robobus, the AV had already been plying a route at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) since last June – but with a safety officer present.
Under LTA's AV assessment framework, companies deploying AVs must first pass certain tests and demonstrate safe operations on public roads with safety operators on board.
'Once they pass the assessments, they may proceed to remove the on-board safety operator requirement and replace it with constant remote monitoring instead,' said Lam Wee Shann, LTA's chief technology officer.
Jennifer Li, chief financial officer and head of international at WeRide, said that LTA's approval 'demonstrates that our vehicles are safe, reliable, and ready to transform public transportation at scale'.
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The Robobus connects key points within RWS on a fixed 12-minute loop. It is equipped with lidar technology, cameras and sensors capable of detecting obstacles more than 200 m away. The bus has not had any safety incidents thus far, said WeRide.
The company was given the green light as Singapore eyes greater deployment of AVs. In June, Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow said that he expects AVs to be on the Republic's roads in the next five years.
WeRide runs a research and development (R&D) centre in Singapore, with support from the Economic Development Board (EDB).
EDB executive vice-president Cindy Koh welcomed more companies to collaborate with the city-state on AV innovation. She said: 'WeRide is an example of how AV companies can partner with Singapore to undertake AV trials and R&D, and create new jobs such as software development engineers, machine learning engineers and data scientists.'
LTA will continue to work closely with companies that seek to deploy AVs to 'alleviate manpower constraints, increase productivity and enhance transport connectivity', said Lam.
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