Singapore may experience all-aluminium body driverless buses by 2020

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and ST Kinetics signed partnership agreement on Monday, Apr 10, to develop driverless buses in Singapore by 2020.The buses will have all-aluminium body in order to keep it light and will be electrically powered.

ST Kinetics expects to unveil a prototype by early next year. The buses will get level 4 autonomy initially that will allow the bus to be driven by itself but will still be manned.

The company will make two 40-seater electric buses - the first time a Singapore company is building an autonomous bus. It will be tested in locations like the National University of Singapore (NUS) campus and Jurong Island before hitting the public roads.

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The buses will have satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) and sensors to scan. The driverless buses will also feature radars and sonars, to detect other vehicles and pedestrians up to 200m ahead.

Dr Lee Shiang Long, president, ST Kinetics, said that these deal is different from other autonomous vehicle projects by serving public transport necessities instead of private.