LTA receives 8 proposals on harnessing self-driving vehicle technology

SINGAPORE has received a "good mix" of eight local and international proposals on how self-driving vehicle technology can be harnessed for mass transport or shared transport services, following a Request for Information call in June, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced in a Facebook post on Monday.

LTA is now evaluating them and will work with the most promising proposers to translate the proposals into trial programmes.

It plans to begin trials in one-north from the second half of 2016.

LTA had announced in June that one-north - a 200-hectare Singapore business park in Buona Vista - would be the country's first test site for self-driving vehicle technologies and mobility concepts.

In the Facebook post, LTA added that in partnership with one-north's master planner JTC, it will progressively install CCTVs and develop a backend system to monitor and study the behaviour of self-driving vehicles.

Short range communications beacons will be implemented at designated locations to enhance the vehicles' way-finding ability by broadcasting information such as traffic conditions in the vicinity. These include nearby road works and traffic incidents.

Prominent signboards will be put up around one-north, along with special decals and markings on all test vehicles, to create awareness among the one-north community and its visitors.

Said LTA on Monday: "We hope to one day deploy a network of demand-responsive shared vehicles to form a new mobility system for intra- and inter-town travel. This will provide convenient point-to-point transport mode within towns, and help us rely less on private cars.

"In time to come, we also wish to have self-driving buses operating on fixed routes and scheduled timings to reduce the heavy reliance on manpower."