FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Singapore in driving seat of Asia’s driverless revolution

Singapore in driving seat of Asia’s driverless revolution

Ongoing trials in the city-state suggest it’s not a case of whether autonomous vehicles will replace human-driven ones, but when

The stuff of science fiction in the 1980s with TV shows like “Knight Rider”, self-driving vehicles are now on the road to becoming an everyday reality.
Around the world, tech firms and automakers are in a race to make driverless technology safer and more intelligent, so that their autonomous vehicles (AVs) can function as well or even better than their human-driven counterparts.
Blazing the trail for Asia is Singapore, where the AV revolution is being hailed as the next wave in public transportation, with driverless taxis and buses expected to be commonplace here within the next five years.
By 2020, Singapore commuters can expect to be riding 40-seater self-driving buses, two of which are in development by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and ST Kinetics.
Self-driving taxis should be touting for passengers even sooner, thanks to another LTA partnership, with tech firms nuTonomy and Delphi Automotive Systems.
US-based nuTonomy plans to launch its service next year, with up to 75 vehicles available, before going island-wide by 2020.
The UK-based Delphi is aiming to put a fleet of 40 to 50 self-driving taxis on Singapore streets by 2022.
Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan announced in January that self-driving technology should be mature enough for “widespread deployment” in 10 to 15 years’ time.
Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform public transport, he added.
“Self-driving pods or shuttles can be deployed at the neighbourhood level to further improve the first and last mile of a public transport journey.
“Commuters can summon these vehicles using their smartphones, and the vehicles will take them in air-conditioned comfort from their doorsteps to the train station,” he said, adding that driverless vehicles will be useful for the elderly, families with kids and the less mobile.
But sceptics still question whether mass adoption of self-driving vehicles might be just a pipe dream.

Dangers ahead
In October last year, a self-driving car from nuTonomy collided with a human-driven truck while undergoing tests, in what was the first accident in Singapore involving an autonomous vehicle. While no one was hurt, it sparked concerns about the safety of driverless technology.
NuTonomy blamed “an extremely rare combination of software anomalies” that affected how the vehicle responded to other nearby vehicles when changing lanes.
It duly improved the software system and resumed trials so far without further incident. Earlier this month, nuTonomy announced a partnership with French automaker Groupe PSA to install its sensors and computing systems in customised Peugeot vehicles. This should provide seamless integration of AV software with current vehicle hardware.
Accidents elsewhere have been more serious.
In May last year, 40-year-old Joshua Brown was killed in Florida after his Tesla smashed into a tractor trailer. Tesla said the driver and the Autopilot function failed to distinguish the white side of the trailer from the bright sky.
The firm said it has improved its systems, with greater reliance on radar than on cameras, and has incorporated safety features to disable Autopilot when drivers are not paying attention.

‘Deep learning’ is key to success
Despite these incidents, developers insist these vehicles will eventually be safer than human-driven ones.
Their confidence rests in the untapped potential of artificial intelligence, particularly in the area of “deep learning”, in which computers mimic a human brain’s ability to recognise patterns in huge data sets and make predictions.
This will allow self-driving cars to better deal with the myriad scenarios on roads, such as deciding when it’s safe to drive through a intersection without traffic lights, or predicting the behaviour of other motorists and pedestrians.
Researchers are also working to improve autonomous vehicle’s “sight”.
Currently, self-driving technology relies on Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors and smart cameras. Lidar uses laser beams to map out the surrounding environment and objects, while the camera scans for traffic lights, road markings and pedestrians.
The technology is still evolving – two months ago, scientists at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) unveiled an ultra-fast camera that mimics the human eye by tracking minute changes in the scene. The new hardware has applications for self-driving cars and drones.

Traffic deaths and the case for AVs
Globally, around 1.3 million people die in traffic accidents every year. According to studies, over 90 per cent of road accidents result from human error – poor decision-making, distraction and fatigue.
Scientists tout driverless technology as the antidote, since computers never get weary or distracted and, more importantly, are not prone to road rage or erratic behaviour.
These are solid grounds for keeping the money and effort flowing into research on self-driving technology, despite the setbacks.
The question then is not whether AVs are the future, but when they will fully replace human-driven private cars, buses, taxis and commercial vehicles. Optimists reckon that this could happen in a decade
But are people ready for the change?
A January study of 17 countries – including the US, Germany, China and Japan – found that consumers are still have fears about safety. Published by Deloitte, the report found that 79 per cent of consumers in tech-friendly Japan believe that fully autonomous vehicles will not be safe.
Researchers and automakers thus face an uphill task to convince the public to put their lives in the hands of self-driving vehicles. 

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