Singapore gives first look at driverless pods

Singapore’s SMRT has revealed the driverless pods that it plans to trial in Singapore. This comes two weeks after GovInsider exclusively revealed plans to use driverless buses on the roads in One North.

SMRT has partnered with Holland’s 2Gethere and intends to trial a 24-seat pod by the end of the year. This pod is unable to go on public roads, however, but will be set to work in a “semi-controlled environment”, the Dutch operator said.

Last November, GovInsider broke the news about plans for driverless pods. Senior Minister of Transport Ng Chee Meng said that “We should be able to go to the carpool, grab different ride options, and even hop onto a self-driving pod for the first and last mile.”

Two weeks ago, GI followed up with comments on driverless buses from Smart Nation Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

“We’re looking at this starting in One-North, and we hope to see some autonomous vehicles in the shape of buses and minibusses plying those routes to close that last 500 meters [from MRT stations to houses],” he said.