\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: Step into an autonomous vehicle (AV) and it might be confusing to still see a driver behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
Since the vehicle is self-driven, passengers sometimes ask what Ms Sarah Ahmad does as a safety driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are those who actually say \u2018wow, your job is so simple, you just sit there and do nothing, and you can sleep \u2026 even retirees, or even if you don\u2019t have a driving licence, you can do it\u2019,\u201d said the 45-year-old, who is part of Grab\u2019s AV trial in Punggol.<\/p>\n
The mother-of-four told CNA that these sentiments could not be further from the truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be on higher alert as compared to when you are holding on to the steering wheel, because now you’re supervising the vehicle, so you have to make sure that if the car suddenly moves to the right, you need to take note of all the things that are happening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s as though you are a driving instructor, and the vehicle is the student.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides having a driving licence, she had to also learn to operate a left-hand drive, as the AVs are from China.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt any point you need to take over, you still have to drive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Safety driver in ComfortDelGro’s Punggol AV trial Sherman Seng, 24, said: \u201cMy passengers often think that it’s a driverless vehicle, so I just sit there and do nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the case, because we have to maintain concentration almost all the time. The concentration part is there so that we are able to prevent unforeseeable events.\u201d<\/p>\n
AVs are a fast-emerging industry in Singapore, with pilots running for several years.<\/p>\n
Both Grab and ComfortDelGro partnered with Chinese autonomous-driving technology firms WeRide and Pony.ai respectively to roll out autonomous shuttle services in Punggol.<\/p>\n
The initiatives began with testing and community trials before Grab-WeRide opened rides to the public in April, followed by ComfortDelGro-Pony.ai in June.<\/p>\n
Grab said in July that it would pilot an on-demand AV service in Punggol in the next few months that will allow riders to book an AV to travel directly between select pick-up and drop-off points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also said in September that it would be expanding its AV fleet from 10 to 50 in the next six months and broadening its AV service coverage within Punggol<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Bill tabled in parliament earlier this month proposed to extend the existing regulatory sandbox for AV deployments on roads to Dec 31, 2028. This is to ensure that ongoing AV deployments can continue uninterrupted until a “more holistic legislation” is implemented, said the transport ministry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE: Step into an autonomous vehicle (AV) and it might be confusing to still see a driver behind the wheel. Since the vehicle is self-driven,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--M7vBZxqk--\/c_crop,h_720,w_1280,x_0,y_132\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/14\/photo_6143127664215134898_y.jpg?itok=8Vj0fmhu","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11179,30031,30032,5002,398,11600,6059],"class_list":["post-85087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-autonomous","tag-debunk","tag-misconceptions","tag-operators","tag-safety","tag-sit","tag-vehicle","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>
\n