We’ve said this many times before, but we’ll say it again—the future is here. Singapore is quickly moving forward as we become replete with technological advancements like the world’s first public trial of self-driving taxis, electric car sharing and more. Here’s what you need to know to keep yourself up-to-date.
Driverless taxis
nuTonomy rolled out a public trial of self-driving taxis (first in the world) in Singapore. Once all that data and feedback are collected, they’ll make a couple of tweaks and hopefully be ready for a commercial launch in 2018. They have also partnered with Grab to extend the public trial to a larger audience. There is now a special “Robo-Car Trial” icon on the Grab app to book a ride, which will be free-of-charge.
Driverless buses
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). 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. The tests are slated to take off in early 2018.
Automated food courts
Changi Airport recently introduced their unattended retail concept of paying for food and beverages with their automated food court at Terminal 2. Visitors can now select their bowl of noodles or a plate of chicken rice from a screen, pay through their credit card and collect their food; all with minimal human interaction. This is one of Singapore’s measures to curb the lack of manpower.
Unmanned shop at Hougang
A provision shop at Hougang has gone unmanned. Customers come in, pick up whatever they want to buy, show it to either one of the shop’s eight CCTV cameras, and drop their cash at the handmade cash register at the front of the shop. You can even get your change back at the press of a button.
Electric car sharing
A new electric car-sharing scheme will be introduced next year to provide a greener option to owning a car. To kick off this new programme, Jurong East, Ang Mo Kio and Punggol will be the first to see the installation of 50 EV stations and 250 charging points, which will cater to the first fleet of 125 BlueSG cars from the middle of next year.
Face-reading system
Soon, you can bid adieu to your ez link cards. Singapore Technologies (ST) Electronics has just created a new facial recognition system that can identify commuters as they enter and exit the gantries at MRT stations. It works like how you would with credit cards: you’ll be billed at the end of the month, depending on how often you pass through the gates.
Smart Tray Robot
If you swing by Koufu and Punggol Plaza, you’ll realize something rather peculiar: there are a bunch of droids that go around the food court to encourage patrons to return their trays. Once their racks are full, they return to the washing area where the cleaners will empty them before returning to their duties. There’s been mixed reactions, but we’ll see how this develops as the weeks go by.
