Driverless vehicles won't cause taxi & PHV drivers to lose their jobs in the short term: Sun Xueling

The advent of autonomous vehicles (AVs) might cause "anxiety" among taxi and private-hire vehicle (PHVs) drivers, said Senior Minister for Transport Sun Xueling.

But given the limited supply of AVs at the start, taxi and PHV drivers need not worry about being displaced in the short term.

Nevertheless, the government will begin rolling out training and reskilling programmes for taxi and PHV drivers to pivot to the AV sector, or other sectors if they wish.

"We will put these programmes in place early to provide drivers with options, and time to go for reskilling," Sun said.

AVs in Punggol

Sun was speaking at the Sep. 25 Parliament, in response to questions from Members of Parliament about the recent launch of AVs in Punggol.

On Sep. 20, she and Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow launched the first driverless shuttles in Punggol at the Autonomous Vehicles Roadshow.

The shuttles have begun trials without passengers as of this week, and are expected to be rolled out to the community in the second quarter of 2026.

In her speech, Sun added that the shuttles will help add to Singapore's public transport network "without running up against fundamental manpower constraints".

For instance, AVs can serve more commuters at night, as it is difficult finding bus drivers for night rides.

Sun added that the AVs will further help create new job opportunities for Singaporeans, such as safety operators, remote operators, engineers, and technicians, as well as within the AV tech industry.

While the AVs are currently limited to Punggol, plans are in place to expand the shuttle service to other towns far away from the city, such as Tengah.

AV buses will also soon be trialled as public bus services 400 and 191 at Marina Bay and one-north respectively.

Moving forward

Responding to a question about the safety of AVs, Sun said that the Ministry of Transport (MOT)  and Land Transport Authority (LTA) have put in place safeguards to ensure safe AV deployment.

Aside from always having a safety operator onboard, every AV must pass a safety assessment before it can ply Singapore's roads, including a closed-circuit test, and have adequate third-party insurance, similar to conventional vehicles, in the event of an accident.

AVs will also be tested on whether they can manage adverse weather conditions in Singapore, she clarified.

Finally, as part of the pilot phase, Sun hopes that members of the community can be socialised to the idea of AVs on the road, and on how to interact with them.

"We are looking forward to having a bigger engagement, a more widespread engagement, with residents in Punggol — in particular those who go to preschools as well as active ageing centres, to sensitise them to the use of AVs on the road," Sun said.

Top image from Youtube and Sun Xueling/Facebook