The autonomous vehicle trial between ARC and SMART was covered by Channel 8 reporters. ARC director, Prof. Marcelo H. Ang Jr., shared the technological breakthroughs resulting from the trial and the next steps for the team.

The news article (Chinese) may be accessed here: https://www.8world.com/singapore/driverless-car-2017056

Non-Chinese-speaking colleagues may refer to our (unofficial) translation of the relevant parts of the article below:

Local testing of driverless cars is in full swing. The research team interviewed said that the current phase of testing has been completed and the results show that driverless cars are safe to drive locally, but are limited to specific routes and ranges. The team hopes to launch the next phase of testing this year and demonstrate results within three years, with the aim of having driverless cars on the road within a decade.

NUS and the Singapore-MIT Research Center jointly conducted driverless car tests in 2010. Affected by the pandemic, the original 10-year test was extended to 12 years, ending in June 2022.

I think the important breakthrough is that we have shown that driverless cars are really safe,” said Professor Marcelo H. Ang Jr., director of the Advanced Robotics Centre at NUS’s School of Design and Engineering. “Although there is no need to worry, but it is not yet able to drive as smart as a real driver, for example, we don’t have the confidence to overtake, we can overtake but the confidence is not there, especially when we do get on the road, driving at roundabouts continues to be a challenge.”

The research team also made a breakthrough in detecting the distance between pedestrians and vehicles, and was able to track the location of driverless cars. Further research will be conducted next on how to predict where driverless cars will go.