One day after Singapore’s first driverless car accident LTA introduces driverless buses

One day after sharing that a driverless vehicle had gotten into an accident with a lorry in its Facebook, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that it is launching Singapore’s first trial of driverless buses in Jurong West.

A self-driving vehicle belonging to nuTonomy was involved in a minor incident at Biopolis Drive in one-north at 9.28am on 18 Oct. LTA said that the test vehicle was changing lane when it collided with a lorry at a low speed. There were no injuries. LTA and the Police are investigating the cause of the incident.

The proprietors of the driverless car, nuTonomy, said in a statement that it was cooperating fully with LTA’s and the Police’s probe on the accident, as well as conducting its own investigation.

LTA said that it was collaborating with NTU on an autonomous bus trial, starting with two electric hybrid buses. it hopes to eventually outfit existing buses with a suite of intelligent sensors and develop a self-driving system, which would be able to navigate in Singapore’s local road traffic and climate conditions.

LTA further added that they intend to launch the driverless buses to ply the roads between NTU and CleanTech Park to Pioneer MRT station, as test routes during the trial. And that the buses will feature opportunistic charging technology, enabling them to recharge during stops at a bus depot or bus stops.

LTA’s Facebook admin further said: “If you’re as excited as we are, remember to tune back in every now and then for the latest land transport updates!”

Commuters who responded to Channel NewsAsia’s post of the driverless buses in its Facebook were anything but excited.