You Can Call & Ride On Driverless Shuttle Buses In Sentosa From 26 Aug

By
Victor Fong
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The future is now, people.

We can call and ride driverless shuttle buses in Sentosa.

Driverless? Still long lah. All SBS bus still uncle there.

No, but really. It’s already here. And you can ride it in the next few days on 26 Aug 2019.

Wait, what?

That’s right, slowpoke. Technology waits for no one.

Image: Giphy

But, surely, it’s only for the high SES? What futuristic technologies can this lowly minimum wage worker enjoy?

No worries, because…

FREE On-demand driverless shuttle buses in Sentosa for visitors from 26 Aug 2019

As of writing this article, this doesn’t seem to be promoted on the actual Sentosa website, but we’re not lying here. It’s all over the news.

There are 4 driverless vehicles: 2 minibuses and 2 smaller shuttles that will drive along a 5.7km route, including Siloso Point, Beach Station, Palawan Beach, Tanjong Beach and Sentosa Golf Club.

This will operate for 4 hours on Mon-Fri from 10 am to 12 pm, and 2 pm to 4 pm, excluding public holidays. Each can carry about 10 passengers.

To ride on the bus, all you need to do is call the bus using the “Ride Now Sentosa” app, or at kiosks along the route.

Image: ST Engineering

Look just like Grab right?

But before you get too excited, this is just a trial that began after they started testing this a year ago. So yeah, this ends 15 Nov 2019.

But, safety how?

Aside from the fact that they tested the bus for a year, each vehicle will also come with a safety driver.

Which is a glorified term for a person watching the wheels turn on its own.

Look at this video:

Look, ma, no hands!

Throughout the entire video, the driver didn’t touch the wheel at all.

There’s also a vehicle fault system that will alert the safety driver and give him control of the vehicle. Electronic displays will also show whether the car is driving driverless or not.

What about the tech?

I’ll just accept that it is magic, but if you really want to know, here’s what ST Engineering says are involved: “global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), sensors like light detection and ranging (LIDARs) and cameras, and the ability to integrate high definition mapping data all ensure the autonomous bus maintains its proper position in the lane and navigates safely in complex traffic scenarios.”

So, uh, yeah. Magic.

If you’re worried about our low tech country somehow adopting high tech too fast, we’re actually the top city in Asia to adopt driverless vehicles and 2nd globally, according to KPMG.

In other words, the thing we need to worry about isn’t the buses going Skynet on us.

Hide no more Mark Zuckerberg, we know it’s inevitable/ Image: Giphy

Instead, maybe we need to worry about the drivers behind the wheel thinking, “F***, I’m out of a job am I not?”

The YouTube video I showed you might as well be titled “Watch a man die inside as foreign talent takes over his job”.

Which is what I thought until researching more on bus driver facts.

Bus driver facts

While initially, I worried about job losses for the driver uncles and aunties, the truth is we require a lot more bus drivers here, up to 11,100 workers by 2022 from 9,800 in 2017.

And this is likely to make it so that they have more humane working conditions.

It’s even said that bus drivers have little time to eat or use the toilet because of the working conditions.

We’re also not yet talking about the fact that driverless vehicles don’t need to rest.

Potential for late hours public transport?

Here’s to hoping I don’t need to take Grab whenever I visit my friends in the East and West.

Not I don’t want to join y’all, but my wallet can’t tahan whenever you Tampines kias wanna watch a movie at like 10 pm.

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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Victor Fong
Email: [email protected]