Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) and JTC, a government agency, have opened the first autonomous vehicle (AV) test centre in the Jurong Innovation District, Singapore.

The new test centre, spread across a two-hectare land, will support Centre of Excellence for Testing & Research of AVs – NTU (CETRAN) that was launched on 1 August last year to lead the development of testing requirements for autonomous vehicles.

It will be managed by the Energy Research Institute at NTU (ERI@N).

LTA along with its project partners will develop necessary standards and testing regimes for the safe deployment of AVs on public roads in Singapore.

Since there are no established international test standards for AV’s, CETRAN intends to place Singapore as an industry pioneer by supporting the testing and eventual widespread deployment of AVs.

In order to test the AV navigation controls in a real-life environment, the new test centre has been designed to replicate different elements of Singapore’s roads, with common traffic schemes, road infrastructure, and traffic rules.

“The launch of the CETRAN AV Test Centre today marks a significant milestone in our efforts to become a leading global hub for the development of autonomous vehicle technology.”

The test circuit also features a rain simulator and flood zone to test AVs’ navigation abilities under different weather conditions.

LTA has installed seven 360° close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at strategic locations across the test centre to monitor the progress of AV testing.

This footage is then sent to the Autonomous Vehicle Monitoring and Evaluation System (OLIVE) at LTA’s Intelligent Transport Systems Centre, enabling LTA to evaluate and determine the readiness of AVs for public use.

NTU and CETRAN will also work closely with industry partners such as Siemens and SystemX to explore various areas of AV research.

LTA chief innovation and technology officer Lam Wee Shann said: “The launch of the CETRAN AV Test Centre today marks a significant milestone in our efforts to become a leading global hub for the development of autonomous vehicle technology.

“The Test Centre has been outfitted with equipment and infrastructure that can be configured to simulate various traffic scenarios for AV testing in a dense urban setting.