How well do you know the autonomous vehicles on our roads? Hands up if you know the answers!

Seeing is believing! Once thought a fantasy, autonomous vehicles can now be spotted making short trips around Singapore. Granted, you won’t find them on our expressways just yet, but LTA has been supporting industry players to develop autonomous vehicle (AV) technology for some time now.

How long exactly? You’ll find out as you guess your answers to these Fact or Fiction questions on AVs. Are you ready? Let’s go!

1. Fact or Fiction? Autonomous vehicles have been in Singapore only in the last 3-4 years.

Fiction! Singapore has been testing if it’s possible to integrate autonomous vehicles into our land transport network since 2014. In 2016, we launched one-north as a testbed for on-road AV testing.

While AVs have been in the news more often in these last few years (for good reasons!), they’re certainly not newbies to our sunny island.

2. Fact or Fiction? Autonomous vehicles undergo extensive training before being deployed on our roads.

Fact! Just like those of us who drive, AVs must pass driving school first. Instead of going to Woodlands, Ubi or Bukit Batok, they go to the CETRAN (Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research of AVs-NTU) AV Test Centre at Nanyang Technological University.

Here they get assessed for safety in a controlled environment within CETRAN before they can operate on public roads. Sounds familiar? This is like how students learning to drive have to spend time driving within the driving school compound before they can practise driving in real-life traffic. 

3. Fact or Fiction? Autonomous vehicles are completely unmanned.

It depends! When AVs are first deployed on public roads, a safety operator must be on board, ready to take control if necessary. This is to ensure the safety of passengers and other road users.

4. Fact or Fiction? There are now autonomous vehicles operating fixed route shuttles in Punggol 

Fact! Autonomous shuttles have been deployed in Punggol operating in three fixed routes to connect residents to key amenities and transport nodes within Punggol and cut travel times via public transport by up to 15 minutes. A safety operator will always be on board the AV to take control if necessary, and the AVs are clearly identifiable by the bright purple livery.  Curious to give them a try? Rides are available at Punggol for all to book!

Did You Know? First-mile and last-mile journeys refer to how you get from your doorstep to transport nodes such as your bus stop or train station, and the other way around. 

5. Fact or Fiction? Autonomous vehicles can help with Singapore’s manpower crunch.

Fact! AVs help with manpower constraints by taking over routine and repetitive work, with the extra benefit of not experiencing human fatigue.

Of course, it will take a lot of testing and technological enhancements to bring us there, which is why we already began our AV journey 10 years ago!

6. Fact of Fiction? Autonomous vehicles generally have only one sensor system.

Fiction! Most AVs have a suite of sensors: cameras, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging), IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), and so on.

Inputs from these sensors help AVs to plan a safe path towards its destination, while avoiding obstacles and obeying all traffic rules. Like all drivers, AVs must abide by the traffic rules and regulations too. (It will abide by the traffic rules and regulations as all drivers should.)

Then, with the help of another part of its computer system (motion control and actuation modules #iykyk), the plan turns into action. Rinse and repeat, and that’s how AVs bring you from point A to point B!

Accelerating Our AV Testing

Other than the AV trials in Punggol that are ongoing, we are planning for autonomous buses to be deployed in public bus services, starting with Service 400 and 191 from second half of this year.

Will you be on board?

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