Lessons learnt from Siemens’ ‘Apollo mission’

First published at ITS World Congress - October 21, 2019

Siemens says its project in Singapore to connect autonomous vehicles (AVs) with intelligent road infrastructure has potential to benefit the wider mobility sector. At present the work exists at the test bed of Singapore’s CETRAN AV testing facility at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

But the island city-state’s restricted geography and unusual political situation – the national government is, in effect, also the local government, streamlining decision-making – raises a legitimate question over how transferable this will be to other cities and regions.

Speaking at the ITS World Congress 2019, Fred Kalt, head of Siemens Mobility ITS, Asia Pacific, acknowledges the debate over whether it was “a role model or a lighthouse project”.

But Kalt insists there would be wider learnings for the mobility industry, likening it to NASA’s Apollo missions.

“The world can benefit from what we’re doing here,” he says. “A lot of people benefitted from the technology to send people to the moon.”

At CETRAN, Siemens is working with NTU for Singapore’s Land Transport Authority to demonstrate Vehicle to Everything (V2X) technology that includes on-demand AVs able to deal with pedestrians in the roadway and traffic light-timing extensions to smooth passenger journeys. Singapore has ambitious plans for AVs in its transit ecosystem, pledging to deploy island-wide autonomous buses and shuttles by 2030.

While Siemens says that “millions” of simulations have taken place using advanced software to collect massive amounts of data along with the work at CETRAN, there is no timetable for putting the technology into practice on Singapore’s streets.

“We are using standard products to complement this other information,” says Michel Obadia, CEO of Siemens Mobility Asia Pacific. “This will happen step-wise, as we develop use cases.”

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