Self-driving Vehicles Being Tested on Public Roads

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye asked the Minister for Transport (a) how many self-driving vehicles are currently being test-driven on our public roads; and (b) what safety measures are in place to ensure the safety of pedestrians.

Mr Speaker, 14 autonomous vehicles (AVs) are currently authorised to conduct trials on roads in one-north, NUS and Singapore Science Parks 1 and 2.

To ensure the safety of all road users, trials must fulfil stringent requirements. The vehicle must pass a safety assessment to demonstrate that it can adequately handle basic manoeuvres and come to a safe stop upon the detection of an obstacle. Initial AV trials will only be conducted on lightly used roads, such as those in the one-north district. Further trials in more complex environments will be allowed when AVs are able to demonstrate a higher level of competence. All AVs being tested must be accompanied by a safety driver trained to immediately take over full control of the AV when required. All AVs must have a vehicle fault alert system that will alert the safety driver of any faults, and allow the control of the vehicle to be immediately transferred to the safety driver. LTA will only waive the requirement for a safety driver after AV developers have convincingly proven the competence, reliability and safety of their technology.

LTA also requires the AVs to be fitted with a "black-box" data recorder, which stores video footage and collects key data, and to have the required insurance coverage against third-party liability and property damage before the AVs are allowed to be tested on our public roads.

We are mindful that AV technology is evolving rapidly. We will review these measures regularly and enhance them if necessary.

I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. In my work with the National Transport Workers' Union, they are very concerned with the deployment of AVs. I visit quite a number of companies which are experimenting with AVs in Singapore. Yes, they all tell me their primary priority is safety of their vehicles.

Earlier this year, a self-driving Uber car killed a woman on a street in Arizona, USA. News reports stated that the car was in autonomous mode and there was a legal operator inside the car at the time of the accident. This threw in doubt the safety measures that most companies have already put into the development of the car.

Given that we have plans to roll out self-driving vehicles, buses, on our public roads in the near future, how can we determine whether a particular self-driving vehicle model is safe before we put it onto the road? Would LTA consider delaying deploying such self-driving vehicles until we are fully assured of the safety of all our road users?

Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for the question. As far as the first question on how we can be sure that a vehicle is safe, in my answer to the Parliamentary Question (PQ), I have listed the many steps and considerations that we are taking: a given technology, a given process and a specific entity, organisation or company, from a limited road trial to an extended road trial and a complex environment road trial. And some of these steps we have not come across yet. We have a phased approach, a tiered approach, and that is how we will be gradually increasing our confidence in the safety of any given technology or platform.

We must also consider what it is that we are comparing them against. Absolute safety is very hard to determine in any situation or any technology. And the reality is that human-piloted vehicles are not absolutely safe and we do see a significant number of accidents. One of the key concerns about how we develop AVs is to make sure that our roads, over time, become safer. So, it is not just about making sure it becomes as safe as today, but safer than today, and that is the destination we wish to go to.

For the second part of the question, yes, if there is a technology that we are not convinced will provide that level of safety as well as the opportunity to learn from any near misses and incidents so that it can improve its safety over time, we will, of course, hold back and study further and improve as we go along. That is our primary concern as well.