A joint R&D team from Continental and EasyMile have commenced the development and testing of solutions for driverless mobility in Singapore. The team’s focus is to advance technology in perception and deep learning to safely deploy AVs on proving grounds and public roads in the Singaporean metro area.
With a regulatory sandbox for AVs already in place, Singapore has the flexibility to quickly adjust its regulatory framework to support the fast pace of development of AV technology while safeguarding public safety.
“Singapore is one of our largest R&D locations in Asia and has been chosen strategically due to its importance as a financial and trade center,” said Ralph Lauxmann, head of systems and technology, member of the chassis and safety management board, and head of the automated driving project at Continental.
“With the joint R&D team we have expanded the network of our automated driving project to another important location. We are proud to be contributing to the Singapore Smart City Initiative. It is a privilege for our autonomous team to be part of this journey into the future. The results can also be used as a blueprint for the deployment of driverless systems in other regions of the world.”
Gilbert Gagnaire, CEO of EasyMile SAS, said during the inauguration, “I am delighted to further extend the already deep collaboration between Continental and EasyMile. For the past four years EasyMile has demonstrated its leadership in deploying reliable and safe autonomous systems. This joint R&D initiative is an important step in accelerating the development of new technology for global markets as well as to benefit the advance and dynamism of Singapore’s autonomous driving ecosystem to further test our products.”
The MoU between Continental and EasyMile is a stepping stone in a structured approach to AV testing on public roads in Singapore. There is already a test center for autonomous vehicles located in Jurong Innovation District and ongoing AV trials are being conducted at one-north and Sentosa.
The city of Singapore has identified three towns where it will deploy another pilot trial of autonomous vehicles for public transportation by the early 2020s.
