Move aside self-driving cars, and give way to self-driving buses. Yes, you heard that right! Singapore will be the first country to have self-driving buses as a result of a collaboration between the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
According to an article, this initiative has been devised in order to compensate for lack of land and manpower. It is also aimed to bring about road safety, less pollution and reduce traffic congestion (and needless chatter with the driver?). The electric hybrid vehicles will run between the NTU campus and Pioneer MRT station. The buses can power up on the go, and will take approximately 30 seconds to recharge at bus depots along the route.
Excited? Well, you’ll have to wait a minute. The test runs will start happening in early 2018, as reported by Today.
With this initiative, the government is also planning to use the self-driving technology in vehicles to use them for street cleaning, and refuse collection.
