Punggol self-driving shuttle bus hit road divider due to safety officer intervention: LTA

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will lift a safety timeout following the autonomous vehicle (AV) incident in Punggol on Jan. 17.

In a statement on Jan. 29, the authority said operator ComfortDelgro will resume the self-driving shuttle bus from Jan. 30 following a joint review by both parties.

The incident, which occurred along Edgedale Plains, was due to a manual intervention by the bus's safety officer after the vehicle was observed to be "manoeuvring into a different lane without an obvious reason".

Safety officer intervened, AV could not complete manouevre in time

According to LTA, the self-driving bus had detected an "object that was not on the road".

As a precautionary response, it began manoeuvring into an adjacent lane.

However, a safety officer on board intervened after observing the vehicle moving into another lane "without an obvious reason".

He then took over the vehicle manually, causing it to exit autonomous mode.

The safety officer was unable to complete the manoeuvre in time, resulting in the vehicle colliding with the road divider.

LTA said a simulation showed that the vehicle "would likely have completed" the lane change safely and returned to its intended path if there had been no manual intervention.

No injuries were reported and no passengers were on board at the time.

Joint review conducted, safety timeout lifted

LTA said the incident has prompted both parties to jointly review the operating procedures on transitions between autonomous and manual driving and when the safety officer should intervene "to ensure safety for all".

The authority added that the case underscored the "importance of the familiarisation phase", during which vehicles adapt to Singapore's road conditions and fleet operators and safety officers gain a better understanding of AV behaviour without any passengers on board.

LTA confirmed that it will lift the safety timeout and ComfortDelGro will resume autonomous operations familiarisation in Punggol from Jan. 30, following the conclusion of the review.

Top photo via Alvin Teo/Facebook