Driverless bus in Sentosa gets green light to run without safety officer in first for Singapore

SINGAPORE - In a first for Singapore, autonomous vehicle (AV) firm WeRide has been given permission to operate a self-driving shuttle bus service in Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) without any safety personnel on board.

Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) gave the firm the green light after extensive testing and safety assessments of WeRide's remote operations and on-road performance here, said the Guangzhou-based company on July 17.

The company said this is also the first time in South-east Asia that AVs have been given permission to operate without an onboard safety officer.

Its eight-seater driverless bus, fitted with a suite of cameras and light detection and ranging sensors, has been plying a fixed 12-minute route within the RWS integrated resort since June 2024.

The company said it has completed thousands of trips and ferried tens of thousands of passengers without any incident.

In January, WeRide was allowed to remove the steering wheel and pedals from the vehicle, but a safety officer was still required to be on board to intervene in case of an emergency.

WeRide's chief financial officer and head of international, Jennifer Li, called the removal of the onboard safety officer a "groundbreaking milestone" for the future of mobility in the region.

"Deploying the region's first fully driverless robo-bus demonstrates that our vehicles are safe, reliable, and ready to transform public transportation at scale," Li added.

LTA deputy chief executive for technology Lam Wee Shann said the authority has been working with WeRide to facilitate autonomous shuttle trials at RWS, pointing to an assessment framework that was revised in November 2024 to drive the safe adoption of more mature AV technologies.

WeRide, which has established a dedicated research and development centre in Singapore, has also been trialling its self-driving road sweepers in Jurong Lake Gardens since March.

This is after it had earlier deployed similar driverless road sweepers in Marina Coastal Drive and at the Esplanade in November 2024.

WeRide's announcement on July 17 comes as Singapore prepares to make a major AV push to strengthen the public transport network.

By the start of the fourth quarter of 2025, self-driving shuttles will hit the roads in Punggol as part of plans to ramp up driverless vehicle deployments in the next five years.

Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow told reporters during a visit to Guangzhou in late June that the deployment of the autonomous shuttles here will be done in steps.

At the start, these vehicles will not ferry any passengers until residents and road users are more comfortable with them. They will have a safety officer on board and be clearly identifiable by a bright colour.

The hope is that the autonomous shuttles can start taking passengers by the end of 2025.

The safety officer can then be removed eventually in the third stage of the roll-out, as is the case in places like Guangzhou, where some autonomous bus routes are already being operated remotely.

The Straits Times spoke to 27 Punggol residents earlier in July and found a mix of excitement and scepticism about autonomous vehicles.

Financial advisor Shariqqi Rizvi, 28, said he was open to the idea, noting that newer residential estates in Punggol East are hard to access as they are served by only one bus route currently.

Carole Yeo, 36, however, does not believe that driverless vehicles are safe. She said: "I'd be scared. What if something happens suddenly? I don't quite trust them."

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.