Singapore Knows the Future of Driverless Tech
The city-state is in a key position to guide how autonomous vehicles get put into cities around the world.
Driving the standards.
Photographer: Ore Huiying/BloombergPilot plans to test driverless cars on city streets have so far been little more than vanity research projects. But one tiny country has put the whole autonomous vehicle industry on a track to make money in real life.
Automakers, tech firms and new entrants the world over have spent the past few weeks racing to meet Thursday’s deadline for a so-called Request for Information that Singapore announced back in November. The city state plans to operate fleets of autonomous vehicles in three districts starting in 2022. The responses will inform a formal Request for Proposals to win the contracts to offer scheduled services, such as autonomous buses, and on-demand ride-hailing cars to the general public. The timing for the decisions hasn’t been revealed.