Punggol

Mr Chan says trust and credibility remain central as people's news habits continue to change.

Traffic lights in Punggol could soon be fitted with sensors to help autonomous robots cross the road.

The Land Transport Authority is seeking vendors to install the equipment at a junction near Punggol Digital District.

The sensors would allow robots to activate pedestrian crossings wirelessly instead of physically pressing the button.

The move is part of trials involving robots for food delivery, cleaning and patrols, with larger-scale testing expected to begin by the end of the year.

Maybe let's go then directly to your deployment.

So as far as I can tell, Punggol is the first, uh, public autonomous passenger service ever deployed inside a residential neighborhood in Southeast Asia.

So maybe-

Mm-hmm

So can you walk me through the division of labor between Grab, your, um, autonomous vehicle partner, WeRide, and the Land Transport Authority? So specifically, so who is the operator of record? Who owns the vehicles, and who carries also the risk if something goes wrong?

Yeah, absolutely.

So we have a very unique and great relationship with WeRide and with LTA as far as this, uh, Punggol pilot is concerned.

In the case of WeRide, they are the provider of vehicles.

Driverless cars.

The Pongal driverless vehicle.

That's

a good shout.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Once I have children, I have to move to Punggol.

Yes, your chances are better.

All right, if you want to read about those changes, it's in the Straights Times and straightstimes.com.

That's right, but Waymo is not the only player.

Grab and Comfort Delgro have already been conducting autonomous vehicle trials in Pongal.

So as driverless rides become a bigger part of Singapore's transport landscape, The big question here is, would you trust a driverless taxi to get you where you need to go? So we've asked you to write to us, drop us a message on 963 11938, a voice note, or call us 669 11938.

And we've heard from Alvin.

Why do we need this? I think some of the listeners have also feedback and asked, why does Singapore need autonomous vehicles? Do we need to move it this fast? So I think these are very reasonable questions that the public is asking.

And it's to show, it's also for members of the public to then see a proper use case for this technology.

So I think in Punggol, we have a different type of service that is being troughed with Waymo coming in to provide the P2P services, then it's yet a different form of service.

But holistically within the whole transport options that are provided to us across the island, then where do AVs fit in? Whether they plug a gap, whether they meet an unmet transportation needs of members of the public today.

And probably strategic.

Because I think Punggol, just a few days before that, Grab also announced that they're increasing the number of AV, the AV fleet from 10 to 50 vehicles, man, in the next six months.

And maybe even expand beyond Punggol also.

Oh,

yeah, yeah.

level of rain.

I don't know whether people are ready for it also.

But the thing is, the test in Punggol, I'm sure there are times when it rains.