SINGAPORE, April 10 — Trials for self-driving pods in Sentosa and autonomous buses possibly around Jurong Island and the National University of Singapore (NUS) will kick off in the next three months, and if things go well, the rides may be rolled out to the public from as early as 2018 and 2020 respectively.

In Sentosa, testing for four mobility-on-demand pods will start this month along three routes: Tanjong Beach, Palawan East to Siloso Point, Sentosa Golf Club to Imbiah Lookout. Artificial intelligence will allow the 15-seater Navya Arma and 20-seater ST Kinetics Shuttle to replicate the behaviour of a human driver.

From 2018, the public will be able to book a ride on these by booking through their smartphones or information kiosks around the island as part of the trial.

Over at a still-undecided location, work on a trial involving two 40-seater electric buses will start between this month and June as part of a 42-month trial. The Land Transport Authority said possible sites include Jurong Island and NUS. If all goes well, the goal is for the buses to run on fixed and scheduled public routes on selected feeder and trunk bus services in 2020.

Both projects were unveiled by ST Kinetics at a ceremony on Monday (April 10). Several initiatives were announced, including the launch of the Singapore Autonomous Vehicles (AV) Consortium and AV development projects with the Ministry of Transport (MOT), Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC).

For the Sentosa trial, the engineering company will work with SDC and MOT, and make use of a fleet management system to analyse passenger demand and optimise route management.

For the driverless bus trial, ST Kinetics is collaborating with the LTA. Initial stages of the trial will be conducted during off-peak hours at an industrial area, before progressing to more complicated test sites. In the future, the trial could be extended to public roads for intra-town travel, said the LTA.

A satellite-based Global Positioning System and sensors will enable the buses - traveling up to 60km/hr - to identify their location and surroundings. Radars and sonars will be able to pick up other vehicles and pedestrians as far as 200 metres away.

Permanent Secretary for Transport Pang Kin Keong said: "The autonomous mobility-on-demand trial in Sentosa and the autonomous bus trial with ST Kinetics are further major steps in our plan to leverage the technology to improve urban mobility in Singapore. We will progressively launch more trials, including in other parts of Singapore, with the aim of eventually deploying such mobility concepts as part and parcel of our transport system.” — TODAY