12 November 2018

Announcement

The Group announced that it was embarking on a trial of an autonomous shuttle bus service in real traffic conditions – the first of its kind in Singapore by a land transport operator – in the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Kent Ridge campus. 

24 January 2019

Delivery

The EasyMile EZ10 autonomous shuttle, funded and imported by Inchcape Singapore, was delivered to ComfortDelGro.

7 February 2019

Training

Safety operators from ComfortDelGro Bus who will be operating the vehicle were trained.

2 April 2019

Registration

The autonomous shuttle was approved by the Authorities and successfully registered.

8 April 2019

Inspection

It underwent inspection and testing at VICOM.

6 May 2019

Passed CETRAN

The autonomous shuttle passed the Centre of Excellence for Testing & Research of Autonomous Vehicles (CETRAN) Milestone 1 test on the first attempt, making it ready for actual road deployment.

25 May 2019

Road Tests

The autonomous shuttle underwent a 1.5-month road test to “map” and test the route through the collection of data for the vehicle’s navigation systems. It was officially named NUSmart Shuttle.

29 July 2019

Launch

The passenger trial was officially launched by ComfortDelGro and its partners, Easy Mile, Inchcape Singapore and National University of Singapore at innovation 4.0.

30 July 2019

Passenger Trial

The autonomous shuttle started passenger service at the NUS Kent Ridge campus. It operates between 10.20am and 11.20am as well as 2.20pm and 3.20pm at 20-minute intervals from Mondays to Fridays. It makes round trips along the 1.6km route between Heng Mui Keng Terrace and Business Link starting from innovation 4.0 (i4.0), and calling at stops opposite Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library, BIZ 2 and Business Link, before ending at i4.0. A Safety Operator is on board at all times. It does not operate when it rains.

22-25 October 2019

Showcase

The autonomous shuttle became the belle of the ball when it was showcased at the 26^th Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress. During the five-day event, the autonomous shuttle demonstrated not only its driverless capabilities, but also its ability to automatically move to the boarding point upon request via an app and to circumvent obstacles while travelling along its route. It proved to be so popular that all 50 available slots during demonstration were snapped up by delegates and the public, and it ferried over 300 passengers.

30 March 2022

AV COE

The Group established a S$30 million Autonomous Vehicle Centre of Excellence aimed at building up its capabilities in the operation and maintenance of such vehicles. The AV CoE, which was set up through ComfortDelGro’s S$100 million venture capital fund, will focus on the research and development of AV-related capabilities over the next five years. It will enable the Group to develop a technology platform to support the delivery of mobility services using AVs, with a view of deploying them commercially.