The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is kickstarting a trial for autonomous public bus services. Six driverless buses will be deployed from mid-2026 and will follow public bus routes.
These bus routes will be limited to three locations – Marina Bay, Shenton Way, and One-north in Buona Vista.
According to LTA’s Facebook post on Monday (27 Jan), a Request for Proposal (RFP) has been launched in order to seek out “industry proposals to pilot autonomous buses for public bus services”.
The proposal is meant to assess the technical feasibility of autonomous or driverless vehicle technology for public bus services.
It will also provide insights into the operations of running driverless buses at service and fleet levels.
The RFP is expected to close by the second quarter of 2025 and the contract will be awarded by the end of 2025.
Source: LTA on Facebook
According to the LTA, the six driverless buses will be smaller compared to a regular bus, with at least 16 seats.
They will be running on services 400 and 191.
Service 400 will run through the public bus routes of Marina Bay and Shenton Way, with stops at Shenton Way, Downtown, and Gardens by the Bay MRT stations. Service 191 will run through One-north, with stops at Buona Vista, and One-north MRT stations.
This initial part of the trial will last for three years, where the driverless buses will operate alongside existing manner bus services.
LTA said that during this time, they may buy up to 14 more autonomous buses to expand the pilot to two more public bus services later on.
According to them, a selected tenderer will work closely with SBS Transit “to develop operational concepts and plans for operating the autonomous public buses”.
There will be bus captains on board as safety operators, who will be monitored in real-time by LTA. They will then assess the buses’ self-driving performance and compliance with regulations.
Source: LTA on Facebook
Once the autonomous buses’ self-driving and remote operations are deemed reliable and capable, a remote safety operator will take over the supervisory role, LTA said.
There will be additional safeguard rules to be implemented as well, such as mandatory seatbelt fastening and full-seated passengers.
Also read: Self-driving Hyundai spotted on PIE, likely part of test for driverless taxis
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Featured image adapted from LTA on Facebook.
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