Autonomous Post Bus

Autonomous Post Bus.
Image generated by Copilot
from a prompt by Tom Worthington

Greetings from the Public Transport Council of Singapore's Roundtable on Autonomous Vehicles in Public Transportation. There are twelve people around the table to discuss how to integrate automated vehicles, of all sizes, into the transport system. There is a large exhibition of busses and metros downstairs. I attended a previous exhibit where a full size bus was set up to operate without a driver. The technology is now there to use that, but what for? Does the automated bus operate fixed routes, or could it do more? 

I am not an expert in AI or public transport, so I am not exactly sure why I was invited. But I do teach students how to build automated systems for real world needs. It strikes me that the driver-less bus is a solution still looking for a problem to solve. There is also the problem of driver-less vehicles coping with congested roads. A bigger issue is public perception: EVs catch fire far less than petrol cars, but being new they invoke fear. Similarly driver-less vehicles will likely be safer, but early inevitable accidents will make the headlines. 

Some small autonomous vehicles are already operating in Singapore. We had to introduce ourselves, I explained I am not an AI or transport expert, but suggested looking at a finer granularity for autonomous transport, integrated into the mapping apps. I related how ANU introduced a shuttle bus, but this was not visible on Google maps, so most people would not know it exists. Also I related how I have seen four students on one battery scooter, which promoted me to think much smaller slower autonomous transport had a role (much smaller than a taxi or mini bus). 

An interesting point which came up was how comfortable the passengers feel sharing a small vehicle with a stranger, with no driver. I was surprised this was still an issue, as ride sharing companies have addressed security through rating of drivers, and women only services. It should be possible to have a service which shows you a photo of who you are travelling with and gives an endorsement of them. 

Something which occurred to me was if there was a place for a modern version of the post bus. These traditionally provide a slow bus service for sparely populated rural areas, integrated with postal delivery. The modern version could be a parcel delivery service, with space for passengers. You could arrive at your destination, and pick you package from the back of the vehicle. I had copilot produce a sketch of this (prompt: "create an image of a six seater autonomus vehicle, which has parcel lockers like those used by amazon built into the back. Show a person removing a parcel from a locker.").

I thought it was curious Singapore, a leader in public transport, asking people from other nations for advice. I am reminded of an episode ("Transport!") of the satirical TV series "The Games", where consultants suggested studying the Los Angeles public transport system, until it was pointed out they don't have a public transport system.