Speech by Ms Sun Xueling, Senior Minister of State for Transport and National Development at Autonomous Shuttle Roadshow at Punggol Digital District

Transport Minister, Mr Jeffrey Siow

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong

My fellow Grassroots Advisers Janil and Wan Lin

Members of the Steering Committee on Autonomous Vehicles

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen, and very importantly residents of Punggol

1.     A very good morning to everyone. Thank you for being here today at the Autonomous Shuttle Roadshow.

2.     As a Member of Parliament for Punggol GRC, I believe I can speak for Punggol residents who have shared with me both their excitement and concerns about the upcoming autonomous shuttles running in Punggol.

3.     As Minister Jeffrey Siow has shared, Punggol is selected as the first location in the whole of Singapore to roll out the use of autonomous shuttles in the community. We have a diverse group of residents – young and old – with some very clear travel patterns that can be better served. We also have a very compact town with our amenities grouped in certain locations. There is an opportunity for us to enhance transport options intra-town with the use of autonomous shuttles.

4.     Punggol Town will also continue to grow as we build up new commercial and educational hubs like the Punggol Digital District, which is where we are now.

5.     We have also heard from our residents’ feedback that public transport options in Punggol could be further improved, especially for our residents who stay farther away from the town centre.

6.     The autonomous shuttles will cover parts of Punggol which are harder-to-reach by public transport today.

7.     The shuttles will also help to improve connectivity within our town, including first-mile and last-mile connectivity to key transport nodes.

Key features

8.     As you have seen just now, we will be launching 3 routes progressively. The shuttles will connect residents to key amenities and transport nodes. Together as a team, as Grassroots Advisers, we have been on the ground talking to our residents, understanding their feedback, understanding their preferences, we have also spoken to the two operators, to decide on the routes that would cater best to our residents’ needs.   

a.     The first route which will be operated by Grab, is set to open to the public by the 2^nd quarter of next year.

b.    It will connect residents from Matilda Court and Punggol Clover to the polyclinic at Oasis Terraces, via Punggol Plaza where the wet market is. No pre-booking will be required, and you will be able to take the service from 9.30am to 5pm from Monday to Friday.

9.     The second and third routes will be launched subsequently.

a.     The second route will be operated by ComfortDelGro and will connect residents living in Punggol Northshore to Oasis Terraces and Punggol Plaza and vice versa. Residents living at Waterway Sunrise 1 and 2 will also be connected to amenities at One Punggol and enjoy a direct connection to Punggol Coast, including the mall, the MRT Station and the bus interchange.

b.    The third route will be operated by Grab, and will connect Matilda Court, Punggol Clover and Punggol Northshore residents to One Punggol and Punggol Coast Mall. As you can see, we have reached out to residents who are staying at the farther edges of Punggol, connecting them via the autonomous shuttles to key amenities and key transport nodes.

Brief Timeline

10.    While we are excited about the new transport connections that the AV shuttles can bring, given that autonomous vehicles are still new in our transport landscape, some of our residents will understandably be concerned about the safety of these new vehicles on the ground.

11.    I want to assure our Punggol residents that safety is our key priority. The vehicles will first go through rigorous testing and familiarization before taking passengers. 

a.    What our residents will first see in the first phase is the vehicles on the roads conducting mapping and familiarization of the road conditions.

b.    This is done through a suite of sensors and cameras installed on every autonomous shuttle, providing a 360-degree field of vision

c.    There will be a safety operator on the autonomous shuttle even though there is no passenger on board at this juncture.

d.    Residents can thus be assured that there is a human in the vehicle as an additional safeguard to ensure safety to other road users.  

e.    It is only after this familiarization period that we will then invite the community in stages, to board the shuttle service for free and experience the ride and see how the technology works.

12.   For our road users in Punggol, you will see that the autonomous vehicles are in a striking unique purple colour. Why? So that you can recognize them. These vehicles are meant to operate alongside other vehicles. So please do not treat them differently from how other vehicles are on the road. So drive as you normally do, cross the road as you normally do.

13.    Let me say a few words in Mandarin before I conclude.

14.    亲爱的榜鹅居民朋友们，榜鹅将迎接自动驾驶接驳车服务。居民很快能看到这些自动驾驶车在榜鹅市镇内穿行。三条特定的短程路线，将改善榜鹅市镇内的衔接性，方便距离市镇中心较远的居民在高峰时段前往交通枢纽，以及在非高峰时段往返社区设施。这些路线的设置考虑到了榜鹅居民多年来提供的反馈，例如想更方便的往返榜鹅东部的巴刹和诊所，以及居民希望能更方便前往巴士转换站和地铁等设施。

15.    在推出自动驾驶接驳车服务的同时，安全是我们的首要考量。我们会采取循序渐进的方式， 确保居民对自动驾驶车感觉放心。例如在第一个阶段的试运行，自动驾驶车在路上行驶时，不会载客，并会有安全人员在车上。在这第一阶段，自动驾驶车在采集数据丰富它对榜鹅路况的了解。自动驾驶车会慢速的行驶，确保其他行人和车辆的安全。当大家逐渐习惯看到并知道如何对待自动驾驶车后，我们才会进入第二阶段。在整个过程当中，我们也会积极地听取反馈，并联系社区内的其他机构例如学校和乐龄服务中心。自动驾驶车的推出是为了方便居民，提供之前未能提供的最后一里的交通衔接性。

Closing

16.    I hope the autonomous shuttles will bring Punggol residents better transport connectivity and provide greater convenience for our residents.

17.    If our residents would like to be the first few to ride on the autonomous shuttles, you can sign up for the lucky draw at the Grab and ComfortDelGro booths.

18.    We will also be eager to hear your feedback after trying out the rides, and we will continue to take in your suggestions to refine the Punggol shuttle services.

19.    So we will be looking forward to your enthusiastic participation while we engage other stakeholders, the pre-school operators, schools, active ageing hubs and public transport operators all working together to make sure we have safe, autonomous shuttles in Punggol, providing greater convenience to our residents.

20.    Thank you!