LTA calls off driverless bus trial on services 400 and 191, will test employee shuttles first

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has called off plans to run six autonomous buses on SBS Transit bus services 400 and 191, and will first look at narrower uses such as employee shuttle services, The Straits Times reported on 12 October 2026.

Replying to the newspaper’s queries on 12 October, LTA said it is taking a “phased and calibrated approach” to rolling out autonomous buses. “We are currently exploring narrower use cases for autonomous buses serving targeted groups of commuters, such as employee shuttle services, before considering wider deployment on public bus services, which are more complex,” the authority said. It added that more details on the use cases and plans will be announced at a later date.

All six buses have now been delivered to Singapore. The first, which arrived in March, has passed LTA’s closed-circuit test, which covers basic manoeuvres and checks that passengers can board and alight safely at all designated stops. The remaining five are still being prepared for the same test, which LTA said also helps ensure that autonomous vehicles can navigate safely on roads.

Under the original plan, the 16-seater self-driving buses were to start running from mid-2026 on Service 400 in the Marina Bay and Shenton Way area and Service 191 in one-north, Buona Vista. The two routes were chosen because they are shorter and simpler. The buses were to operate alongside manually driven buses for an initial three-year period, with bus captains on board as safety operators, while LTA monitored their self-driving performance and compliance with regulations in real time.

According to transport site Land Transport Guru, the pilot contract was awarded in October 2025 to a consortium of MKX Technologies, Zhidao Network Technology (Beijing) and BYD (Singapore) for about S$8.14 million, and the vehicles are BYD B70A02 electric buses. LTA also had the option to buy up to 14 more autonomous buses for two further routes, depending on how the first six performed. LTA has not yet said how the change affects the rest of the three-year pilot or where the six buses will now be deployed.

For bus operators and companies that run staff transport, the shift means driverless buses are unlikely to appear on scheduled public routes in the near term, while fixed, predictable services such as employee shuttles are now the authority’s stated first step. LTA has not said when such trials would start, which operators or employers would take part, or how they would be run. SGFleetGuide will report further details when LTA announces them.

Source: The Straits Times — Read the original