Sentosa trials first on-demand autonomous shuttle

Visitors can hail the shuttle via an app.

Singapore’s first on-demand autonomous shuttles have hit the streets in the first public trial since on-road testing of the autonomous shuttles began in June 2018. The public trial will run from 26 August to 15 November.

Sentosa visitors will be able to hail an autonomous shuttle via the Ride Now Sentosa mobile app or at kiosks along a 5.7km route to bring them to selected destinations on the island, such as Siloso Point, Beach Station, Palawan Beach, Tanjong Beach and Sentosa Golf Club.

Developed by the Land Systems arm of ST Engineering in partnership with the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), four autonomous vehicles (AVs), comprising two minibuses and two smaller shuttles, will be deployed for the trial.

The service will operate free of charge 4 hours on weekdays (excluding public holidays): from 10AM to 12NN, and from 2 to 4 PM.

On board every AV is a safety driver who will take immediate control of the vehicle should the need arise and is supported by a vehicle fault system that will immediately alert the safety driver of any faults, and cede control of the AV to the driver. In addition, all the AVs will display electronic signages to signal that they are operating autonomously.

The AVs come equipped with various technologies such as radar, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), GPS (Global Positioning System), odometry and computer vision, to help them sense their environment and identify appropriate navigation paths, obstacles and signages.