SMRT, Dutch firm to bring autonomous cars to Singapore

SINGAPORE — Just two days after it announced its foray into the private-hire car business, transport operator SMRT is getting involved in developing automated vehicles, with an eye on using them to take commuters from their homes to  bus interchanges and train stations, for example.

SMRT said on Wednesday (April 20) that its operations and maintenance arm, SMRT Services, had entered into a joint venture with the Netherlands-based automated-vehicles company 2 Getthere Holding BV (2getthere) to market, install, operate and maintain the vehicles here and across the Asia-Pacific region.

Called 2getthere Asia, the partnership, which is 51 per cent owned by SMRT Services, will be based in Singapore. According to an announcement submitted by SMRT to the Singapore Exchange on Wednesday, 2getthere Asia has an initial issued and paid-up capital of S$100.

However, the automated vehicles are not expected to hit public roads anytime soon. Right now, some of 2getthere’s automated vehicles are operating in “semi-controlled” environments overseas, such as the Rivium Business Park in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

At the park, for instance, intersections and the speeds of road-users are fully controlled, and access to roads and road-user behaviour partly managed.

2getthere Asia aims to showcase a 3rd-generation Group Rapid Transit (GRT) automated vehicle here by the end of this year.

2getthere, which rolled out its first automated vehicle system at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in 1997, has a history of developing and rolling out such driverless systems in different locales.

Among its vehicles is the four-passenger, 3.92m-long Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) vehicle, which currently operates in Masdar City, a futuristic car-free city in Abu Dhabi powered wholly by alternative energy sources.

In a media briefing to announce the joint venture on Wednesday, SMRT Services managing director Colin Lim said it had decided on the partnership because of 2getthere’s record of safety and the “number of passenger trips” completed on 2getthere’s systems.

It also had confidence in the Dutch firm’s technology and in the future market for such systems here and in the region, he added.

In 2010, 2getthere launched the PRT in Masdar City, where more than two million passenger trips have been made on the system so far.

At Rotterdam’s Rivium Business Park, more than six million people have travelled on the firm’s GRT system, which has a larger capacity than the PRT, since the vehicles were deployed in 2002. The vehicles transport more than 2,500 people at the park daily, clocking a total of almost 1.2 million km since their launch.

Mr Lim said there was a growing national push for mobility solutions to meet the “first- and last-mile connectivity needs in Singapore”. He added that 2getthere Asia could see such systems being applied in “closed environments”, including university campuses and hospitals.

On the issue of launching the vehicles, Mr Lim said 2getthere Asia was in active discussions with several parties both here and in the region, ranging from seaports to business parks, but could not disclose details. However, 2getthere chairman and founder Carel van Helsdingen confirmed the company had carried out a feasibility study for “a campus” in Singapore.

Mr Lim said there was a “good chance” a deal will materialise by year end, and 2getthere Asia will showcase the 3rd-generation GRT on the client’s premises. Alternatively, it would have the demonstration on SMRT’s premises.

Measuring 6m in length, the 3rd-generation GRT seats up to 24 passengers and travels at a speed of 40kmh.

Navigating with the aid of artificial landmarks — thumb-sized magnets fitted every 2m or 3m along the route — the vehicle can operate in challenging weather conditions, and as part of an automated transit system ferrying up to 8,000 passengers every hour in one direction.

The joint venture came on the heels of SMRT’s announcement on Monday that it was entering the private-hire car industry.

In addition to limousine services for the upmarket and commercial segments, Strides Transportation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of its taxis arm, SMRT Taxis, will have a fleet of 300 sedans offering chauffeured and car-rental services.