Under an agreement with Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA), Grab will operate 11 WeRide vehicles on two designated routes in the Singaporean neighbourhood. This small autonomous shuttle fleet will be made up of two WeRide minibuses: the five-seater GXR and the eight-seater Robobus.
Both vehicles have undergone Singapore’s Milestone 1 (M1) assessment, which tests vehicles’ ability to operate on public roads in “autonomous mode” in line with Singapore’s traffic rules. They will be the first autonomous vehicles to attain this certification for use in Punggol, and it will also be the first time that the GXR has been deployed in Southeast Asia.
The exact level of vehicle autonomy is not specified, but WeRide has stated that a trained driver will be onboard every Ai.R ride during an initial “route familiarisation” phase. This will act as a training data phase in order for the vehicles to study the routes in detail, so that they will one day be able to operate autonomously. The vehicles use a mix of LiDAR sensors and advanced cameras to “see” up to 200 metres in each direction. 10 experienced Grab drivers are currently involved in the training, where they are learning how the autonomous driving system works and also practicing transitions between autonomous operation and manual driving.
The new Ai.R service is set to begin taking passengers by early 2026, with routes set to cover “key amenities” e.g. supermarkets, food courts, schools, health clinics, bus terminals and other areas. Grab President and COO Alex Hungate said: “Before any members of the public go onboard, the Ai.R vehicles will make thousands of trips on these two routes in the coming months. With every trip, the vehicles become more and more adept at predicting and responding to local driving behaviours and changes in the environment. There will also be trained Safety Operators monitoring every ride and a Grab customer support team on standby to help whenever needed.”
Dr Kerry Xu, General Manager of WeRide in Singapore, added: ““Our local deployments have helped refine our technology for Singapore’s unique urban conditions. From our Robobus at Resorts World Sentosa to Robosweepers in the city centre, we’ve served tens of thousands of passengers and gained practical insights into rider needs and route operations. That same well-loved Robobus is now in Punggol, ready to bring safe, autonomous journeys to the heartlands.”
In terms of vehicle specs, the Robobus is 5.5m long, 2.6m tall, and 2.m wide with a top speed of 40km/h. According to Uncrewed Systems, it’s battery electric with a range of 120km, and a LFP battery capacity of roughly 69.2kWh. Meanwhile, the GXR is based on the Farizon Super VAN platform with a maximum speed of 120km/h, although published information on battery size or motor power remains scant.
These aren’t the only autonomous electric buses Grab is testing out in Singapore. In July, the company announced it had launched pilot tests with Autonomous A2Z, a full-stack autonomous vehicle technology company based in South Korea. In this case, Grab retrofitted an electric shuttle bus with A2Z’s autonomous software and hardware, and began using the shuttle bus to provide employees with a work shuttle service between its headquarters and a nearby Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station.
grab.com, weride.ai, uncrewed-systems.com
