Waymo founder predicts ‘landslide’ robotaxi adoption in Singapore, driven by high car costs

[SINGAPORE] Self-driving car pioneer Sebastian Thrun expects that there would be widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Singapore – and even sooner than in cities such as San Francisco, simply because it makes more financial sense.

“Once the economics of AVs beat car ownership – and that’s going to happen in Singapore before San Francisco for obvious reasons – we are going to see a massive landslide in which the population will just accept self-driving cars,” he said.

Thrun was speaking to The Business Times in a remote call on the sidelines of Livex, a global urban development and investment exhibition held in Abu Dhabi earlier in October.