Driverless taxis are officially coming to our neighbour down south. Waymo, the autonomous ride-hailing unit of Google parent Alphabet, will begin accepting bookings for rides in its self-driving cars in Singapore from 2028, making the republic its first market in Southeast Asia. The announcement was made yesterday at Google’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Pasir Panjang, The Straits Times reports.
The first vehicles will arrive on Singapore roads within the coming months, and the initial fleet will consist of Jaguar I-Pace SUVs – the electric crossover that has long served as Waymo’s workhorse in the US, where over 2,000 units have been converted into autonomous taxis. Fleet numbers for Singapore have not been disclosed.
However, there won’t be empty driver’s seats just yet. Ahead of the 2028 commercial launch, the cars will be driven by trained AV specialists so the systems can learn Singapore’s road and weather conditions, with testing centred on the western part of the island, beginning with Labrador and HarbourFront. The specialists will be hired locally, as will staff for fleet maintenance and customer support – Waymo registered its Singapore subsidiary back in May.
Transport minister Jeffrey Siow said Waymo’s entry will see the number of autonomous vehicles providing passenger service in Singapore grow from 16 today to several hundred within the next two years – though he noted that this remains a small fraction of the more than 70,000 taxi and private-hire drivers there.
Existing trials by Grab and ComfortDelGro in Punggol – where autonomous shuttle trials began last year – have carried some 20,000 passengers, with 99% saying they would recommend the experience. Deployment is set to expand to Sengkang General Hospital, and later to towns such as Tampines North and Tengah.
Siow positioned driverless vehicles as a complement to public transport rather than a replacement for drivers, saying new jobs will be created in fleet management, remote vehicle operation, maintenance and data analysis. “Some of these jobs will be open to taxi and private hire car drivers. Our operators have launched training programmes to help drivers who are interested in these roles. In addition, the government will subsidise up to 90% of salaries during training,” he said.
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said the company aims to “complement Singapore’s mobility ecosystem with a safe, convenient and reliable option”, citing tens of millions of rides provided in the US since 2020. Studies have found Waymo’s vehicles to be 94% less likely to be involved in crashes causing serious injury, and to record 84% fewer injury-causing collisions with cyclists, compared to human drivers. The company also expects its service to plug first-and-last-mile gaps – in San Francisco, more than a third of Waymo rides start or end near public transport stops.
Singapore will be Waymo’s second market in Asia – commercial services in Tokyo are planned for 2027 – and the company set up a South Korean subsidiary in July, though no timeline has been given for operations there. Waymo currently operates in 15 US cities.
As for Malaysia, we’ve yet to feature in Waymo’s plans, but driverless taxis aren’t entirely off our radar – Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxi service was reported last year to be eyeing both Singapore and Malaysia. Whether anything comes of that here, Singapore’s 2028 rollout means the region’s first proper taste of a Waymo will be just across the Causeway.
go to sinkie place is a jag, come to johari country become bezza and saga, plus bumiputera share so the name becomes maramo
Malaysians still using 1.0L 3 cylinder perodua bezza for ride hailing. Signs of a fail 3rd world poor country
lol first week confirm accident ady. berani kerat jari
good , soon can sack all the lazy entitled grab drivers.
SG ride-hail drivers not the same breed as Msia’s
very ugly
I believe Waymo is using countries where the roads are driven by orderly drivers, motorcycles follow road rules and passengers cross at the correct points: hence their success in 15 USA cities, then Japan, Singapore & South Korea.
I doubt they will launch here, Bangkok, Philippines, India and so on – the system won’t be able to handle the milieu of people crossing the road haphazardly, the motorcycles driving recklessly and some driving against traffic. The car’s systems will get a heart attack! :)
They can if they affix shotguns on either side. Blast the bejesus out of the moto scum where ever they are sighted. Good for the health of the Malaysian IQ low bar.
People everywhere are the same for the most part. The difference is fear of the law, not respect, but fear. Enforcement is strong. In the US the police is the gangster, they even give out citations for so called overly tinted windows without proper testing tools, just going by the officer’s “gut feeling” If malaysian style moto scum ever tries to pull any cute fast ones they are shot on sight. Then of course you will have “orderly driving” people. PDRM needs to start shooting moto on-sight for as much sneezing the wrong way, fear needs to sit in otherwise people WILL NOT change.
.. u would already know that there are already existing laws to punish those who run red lights as commented by ‘berhati2 dijalanraya’.. no need for u or anyone else to become judge, jury & executioner who wants anarchy & mob rule.
First change your name to “no brain dumbo numero uno”
Second, there is no enforcement, I can look out my window now and see dumbos parked all along the road side despite it being a narrow two lane residential area. Why? because polis busy eating nasi lemak. There is no enforcement. No fear for the law by the people.
If you still don’t get it, try uninstalling your brain and install lipas brain, it might actually be better than what you’ve got running right now.
you sure driverless only suitable for roads driven by orderly driver?? if 99.9% drive orderly and 0.1% not, then how ?? if you don’t know, better keep your mouth shut. Waymo is using laser/radar/HD map normally only for certain enclosed area. but Tesla cybercab is better because once trained, it can go anywhere without rely on HD Map.
Gotta keep that I-pace in production somehow, jaguar haven’t recoup their investment yet
Don’t be surprised if the self driving system gets confused by rough weather like rainstorms.
Nope it doesn’t, DNNs are way more than capable of handling inclement weather. Waymo even uses LiDAR instead of pure camera vision., the real challenge now is dealing with morons on the road especially in Malaysia. Like moto bodoh or raceboy geh fag honda drivers for example.