Strengthening Safety and Handover Protocols for Deployment of Self-Driving Shuttle Buses

Written Reply to Parliamentary Question 

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Acting Minister for Transport in light of the roll out of self-driving shuttle buses

a.      whether there is a need to strengthen safety and handover protocols involving autonomous vehicles; and

b.      whether liability and insurance regimes that are in place should be further tightened.

Reply by Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow: 

1.     AV operators must submit detailed plans on the safety operators’ (SOs’) role, interaction protocols with the vehicle, conditions requiring manual takeover or emergency brakes, and incident response procedures. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Centre of Excellence for Testing & Research of AVs - NTU (CETRAN) jointly evaluate the plans before the AVs are authorised to be deployed on public roads.

2.     During public trials, AVs will first undergo familiarisation without passengers to calibrate to the local road conditions, while SOs gain more practical experience on the AVs’ operations and response patterns.

3.      AV trials are currently governed by the regulatory sandbox under the Road Traffic Act 1961 as well as the Road Traffic (Autonomous Motor Vehicles) Rules 2017. LTA requires AV operators to maintain liability insurance covering third-party death, bodily injury and property damage for the entire duration of any trial.

4.      The Government is working with key stakeholders (e.g. industry, insurers, legal practitioners) to review the liability and insurance regimes more holistically, including through introducing AV-specific legislation.