Waymo says Singapore will be its next international robotaxi city

Подробности

The Alphabet-owned company says it will launch a commercial robotaxi service in Singapore in 2028.

Waymo says it will launch a robotaxi service in Singapore in 2028, as the Alphabet-owned company continues to eye overseas markets for expansion.

Waymo’s vehicles will begin arriving in Singapore in “the coming months,” the company says, in preparation of mapping and autonomous testing with human safety drivers behind the wheel in 2027. Waymo says it is “working toward offering fully autonomous ride-hailing to the public” by 2028.

Waymo will need approval from Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) before it can begin accepting passengers. The city-state requires all autonomous vehicles to undergo a safety assessment conducted at the Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research (CETRAN) before they can be deployed on public roads. The tests have been developed by LTA and CETRAN, with input from the Traffic Police. But Waymo isn’t totally unknown in Singapore. The company established a corporate entity there earlier this year and participates in Singapore’s Steering Committee on Autonomous Vehicles .

Singapore has become a hotbed for autonomous vehicle testing. The local authorities have green-lit autonomous freight delivery and road-sweepers, as well as self-driving buses for airport workers. Motional, a US-based company majority owned by Hyundai, conducted a robotaxi pilot in Singapore in 2016.