In our project, we proposed a joint collaboration with Land Transport Authority (LTA), FedEx Express and Toyota Inc.

to swiftly integrate self-automated driverless vehicles, which are completely computer automated, into Singapores courier system to rid of inefficiencies occurring in the transportation sector. Our plans are a pilot program for determining the capabilities of the vehicles and a motor showcase, which serves an advertising purpose.

The projects strength is that driverless vehicles are operated entirely on computers and driverless technology. Computer reactions are significantly faster than human reaction. This is due to computers responding to unforeseen circumstances quicker than humans. This potentially triples highway output. For example, driverless vehicles have shorter reaction time as compared to humans in a car accident as they are structured to immediately detect sudden changes and respond quickly with the appropriate measures. As such, it will minimize prevailing traffic congestion and reduce the need for more road constructions to ease traffic.

To further improve the reaction time of the vehicles on the roads, I propose to have the courier vehicles connected to one another through an online portal. Customers will key in delivery information into the portal and it searches for all available vehicles to attend to the deliveries. Travel plans will be sent directly to any available vehicle and they will proceed to collecting the packages and delivering it to the designated location. Jobs need not be assigned one at a time to each vehicle; any available courier vehicles will take up the delivery jobs.

The projects weakness is the limitation in testing out the vehicles. As programming and simulations cannot possibly recreate every real world scenario when vehicles are driving on the road, the capabilities of the vehicles will not be fully maximized. Additionally, it is difficult to create naturally occurring accidents for the vehicles to drive in; hence we may not be able to determine its reaction to sudden changes.

In order to circumvent this issue, I propose to have the driverless vehicles tested out on actual road circumstances that include driving under any prevailing weather conditions together with other normal vehicles. The duration of the test drive of the vehicles on the roads can be extended to beyond the time span of the pilot program. Driving instructors will be supervising the vehicles while sitting inside the vehicles when on the roads. To be on par with the normal vehicles, the driverless vehicles will be set to a fixed speed limit of 50 km/h to minimize the damage during collisions. Safety measures such as a self-piloting safety system will be implemented into the vehicles. In the event of any accidents during the pilot program, the vehicles automatically decelerate to 10 km/h and switch to the road shoulder swiftly. It will proceed with a full shutdown of the vehicle to ensure safety and security of the goods to be delivered. The supervising driving instructor will continue test-drive by rebooting the system and the vehicles restarts and continues the drive after evaluation.