SINGAPORE, Nov 22 — Residents of three new towns, Punggol, Tengah and the Jurong Innovation District, will be the first to get to try riding driverless buses or hail driverless shuttles, under a pilot starting in 2022.

Announcing this as he opened Singapore’s first test centre for autonomous vehicles (AVs) in the Jurong Innovation District today, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said the Government is seeking inputs from the industry and research institutions on the features that need to be put in place in these towns for these driverless vehicles to run. This request for information was launched on Wednesday and close on May 31 next year.

In a press statement, the Ministry of Transport and Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the autonomous services in the towns will travel on less congested roads, and during off-peak hours, for a start. There will still be normal public buses driven by bus captains, they added.

As announced previously, commuters can book driverless shuttles using mobile phones.

The LTA is also exploring using driverless buses for express transit links connecting the North-East MRT Line to the North-South, East-West and Thomson-East Coast MRT lines.

Noting that autonomous vehicles are a promising technology for Singapore given the manpower constraints in public transport, Khaw, who is Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure, said: "We expect that the autonomous vehicles will greatly enhance the accessibility and connectivity of our public transport system, particularly for the old, families with young children, and also the less mobile.”

He added: "Just as our water needs help catalyse the water industry, we believe our land transport constraints may, in fact, help us become a global player in urban mobility solutions.”

The new two-hectare test facility for autonomous vehicles in the Jurong Innovation District, called the Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research of AVs — NTU (Cetran), is designed to replicate the various elements of Singapore roads, with common traffic schemes and rules, for example. It was jointly developed by the LTA, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and JTC.

The centre’s test circuit is also equipped with a rain simulator and flood zone, which will put autonomous vehicles’ navigational abilities to the test under conditions such as heavy downpours and partially flooded roads.

Professor Lam Khin Yong, NTU’s acting provost, chief of staff and vice-president (research), said the centre has "never come at a better time”, given that the challenge was to test autonomous vehicles in a controlled environment without posing harm to other vehicles and commuters. — TODAY