Autonomous Pod Cars Coming To Singapore This Year

Elon Musk says that someday soon, autonomous cars will be as common as self service elevators. A partnership between Dutch company 2getthere and Singapore transportation operator SMRT announced this week that they will build a version of the autonomous pod cars currently in use in AbuDhabi for use in Singapore and have them on the road by the end of this year. The venture will be known as 2getthere Asia.

In Abu Dhabi, the pods are used within Masdar City, a clean technology park that uses 100% fossil fuel free transportation. The pod system has carried more than 1,000,000 passengers since it began service in 2010. Readers may note the fine irony of a country built on profits from the oil industry using a transportation system that uses no fossil fuels.

The pods used in Abu Dhabi seat either 4 or 6 passengers. The vehicles for Singapore will have room for 24 people and will be able to accommodating up to 8,000 riders per hour. They will be used for transportation within gated communities and on college campuses. The autonomous pods are capable of returning to their station to recharge their batteries when necessary and then returning themselves to service without any human intervention.

SMRT is the second largest public transportation company in Singapore, according to Mashable. It operates several of the area’s bus and subway train networks. It also has overseas operations in Hong Kong and the Middle East. 2getthere has built a similar system for Rotterdam’s Rivium Business Park, which has six 20 passenger autonomous vehicles operating within the park. 2getthere says 2,500 people use the pods every day.

These autonomous pods are not capable of handling the cut and thrust of real world driving on public streets. They are confined to pre-designated routes where interaction with other vehicles is limited. Still, they point toward the future of transportation. All they need is more advanced sensors and software to be able to tackle more complex driving chores.

It is interesting that a Dutch company is building these vehicles for customers in the Middle East and Singapore while back home the Dutch towns of Wageningen and Ede are using similar vehicles manufactured by EasyMile, a French corporation, to provide driverless transportation for local residents. Elon Musk’s horizontal self-service elevators are already here and are only a few years away from general acceptance.

BYD signs MOU to discuss EV JV in Singapore; distributing eBUSes and e6 taxis

SMRT Corporation Ltd. and its wholly owned subsidiary SMRT International Pte Ltd, a multi-modal transport service provider in Singapore, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with BYD Company Limited to enter into discussions regarding the possibility of establishing a joint venture to distribute BYD’s eBUSes and e6 Taxis in Singapore.

SMRT became the first public transport provider in Singapore and South East Asia to purchase Euro V compliant buses in May 2008 and now has more than 140 Euro V buses on the roads. SMRT Corporation Ltd’s Executive Vice President, Commercial Business & Roads, Teo Chew Hoon said that the company is exploring the use of electric vehicles in its bus and taxi fleets.

The BYD eBUS-12 and the e6 taxis both can travel up to 300 km (186 miles) with a single electric charge. The BYD e6 has been used as taxis in Shenzhen, China for more than a year; the fleet of 50 e6 Shenzhen taxis, in service since May 2010, have now surpassed 3 million kilometers (1.86 million miles) in cumulative fleet miles.

Source: Green Car Congress