The Ministry of Transport (MOT) and PSA Corporation today signed agreements with two automotive companies, Scania and Toyota Tsusho, to design, develop and test - bed an autonomous truck platooning system for use on Singapore's public roads. With this, Singapore moves a nother step closer to wards autonomous freight transport.
These agreements follow from a Request for Proposals (RFP) exercise, suite to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked between MOT and PSA in October 2015 to collaborate and co - fund truck platooning projects.
Truck platooning involves a human - driven lead truck leading a convoy of driverless trucks. In the Singapore trials, the trucks will transport containers from one port terminal to another. Efficient freight movement is critical to the competitiveness of our port. Truck platooning will also alleviate our shortage of manpower, and allow more freight movement to be conducted at night to ease traffic congestion.
Both companies will be working to develop technologies to enable heavy vehicles to move in leader - follower formation, as well as to fully automate the processes for precise docking and undocking of cargo.
The truck platooning trials will take place in two p hases over a three - year period from January 2017 to December 2019. The first phase, lasting about a year, will focus on designing, testing and refining the truck platooning technology to adapt to local 2 conditions.
The trials will be conducted by Scania and Toyota in their respective research centres in Sweden and Japan, to leverage their existing development work. Depending on the outcomes of the phase 1 trials, MOT and PSA Corporation will then select one of the companies for phase 2, which will consist of local trials and some development of the technology in Singapore.