Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) has signed a partnership agreement with Singapore Technologies Kinetics (ST Kinetics) to develop and trial autonomous buses in the country. 

The agreement was signed in order to support the efforts of the Committee on Autonomous Road Transport for Singapore (CARTS), and accelerate development and deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs) to improve land transport systems in the country.

Prior to this agreement, LTA has signed agreements with three other companies. These comprise Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) for developing and trialling autonomous bus technology, as well as with Delphi and nuTonomy to perform autonomous mobility-on-demand trials. 

ST Kinetics is the land systems and speciality vehicles arm of ST Engineering.

LTA shortlisted proposal of ST Kinetics under LTA’s request for information (RFI) issued in June 2015 on how AV technology can be harnessed as part of mobility concepts such as mobility-on-demand and autonomous buses.

As per the agreement, ST Kinetics will be developing and integrating AV technologies with two 40-seater electric buses, which can be used by the authority for both intratown and intertown travel in the future.

Buses will be equipped with a suite of sensors to scan and determine their location and use global positioning systems (GPS) to navigate autonomously within the city. 

As well as sensors, the buses will also have radars and sonars for detecting vehicles and pedestrians up to 200m ahead.

"This is also in line with the whole-of-government effort to explore and apply smart technologies to improve our lives."

ST Kinetics will also be working towards improving the ability of the bus during heavy rain conditions.

LTA chief technology officer Lam Wee Shann said: "Currently, most AV technology developers are focusing their efforts on developing self-driving cars.

"Singapore’s need for high-capacity vehicles to address commuters’ peak-hour demands presents an opportunity for companies such as ST Kinetics to develop autonomous buses to address this latent demand.

"This is also in line with the whole-of-government effort to explore and apply smart technologies to improve our lives. We are excited to partner ST Kinetics to develop autonomous electric buses, that if successfully deployed, will benefit commuters and greatly change the way we travel."

During the three-and-a-half year project, ST Kinetics will be testing the autonomous in various environments.

Currently, LTA is carrying out consultations with the stakeholders including National University of Singapore (NUS) as well as JTC to provide suitable trial locations, and the AV bus is more likely to be tested at Jurong Island and NUS campus.

Initially, the AV bus will be tested during off-peak periods at an industrial area, as the road infrastructure is reported to be less complex in this location. ?