The Autonomous Intelligent Ride (Ai.R) is an autonomous shuttle programme in Punggol, Singapore, operated by Grab, ComfortDelGro (CDG), WeRide, and Pony.ai. It began operations in 2026, with two main routes and one mini route. [1] A third route is currently in development. There are plans to expand the service to other areas in Singapore. [2] [3]
Automated public transport has been trialled and deployed in different areas of Singapore. Robobus, an autonomous shuttle service operated by WeRide, began operations in June 2024 at Resorts World Sentosa. Human operators, previously present on the service for safety reasons, were removed in July 2025. [4] [5] Trials for autonomous bus services have been conducted in one-north, Marina Bay, and Shenton Way. [6] [7] [8]
On 4 February 2016, plans were announced in the Land Transport Master Plan (LTMP) 2040 to deploy autonomous buses in Punggol, Tengah, and the Jurong Innovation District, as part of a pilot programme. [9] In 2019, the deployment of the autonomous vehicles (AV) was confirmed to take place in the early 2020s. [10]
On 27 June 2025, the Acting Minister of Transport Jeffrey Siow, and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Punggol Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Sun Xueling visited the headquarters of WeRide, located in Guangzhou, China. [11] They also stated plans for trials for the autonomous shuttles to begin on the fourth quarter of 2025 in Punggol. [12] [13]
In September 2025, Grab was selected as the operator for two autonomous shuttle routes in Punggol. [14] [15] Grab and ComfortDelGro also partnered with the Chinese autonomous vehicle companies, WeRide and Pony.ai, respectively, to begin autonomous shuttle services in Singapore in early 2026. [15] Trials for the new shuttle services also began on the same month. [2] During this trial period, the shuttles completed over 25,000 km of autonomous testing. [16]
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) subsequently gave approval to Grab and WeRide to test 11 shuttles on two routes. [17] The first AV testing was conducted in mid-October 2025. [17] [18] [19]
On 12 January 2026, by-invite community rides [a] of the shuttles operated by Grab and WeRide began. [16] [20] [1] Invitees included members of grassroots organisations, [22] and winners of the SG60 lucky draw. [1] [23] During these trials, a safety operator would be in the vehicle at all times. [24] [25] According to the LTA, about 740 people had ridden on the autonomous shuttles during this period by 4 March 2026. [26] [16] All passengers would be insured in case of an accident. [27] [28]
On 17 January 2026 at around 3.10pm, an autonomous shuttle operated by CDG undergoing testing collided with a road divider in Edgedale Plains, Punggol. As a result, the automated vehicles operated by CDG had a safety timeout during the investigation of the incident. [29] [30] [31] [32] The LTA later stated that the incident was caused by human intervention of the safety officer on board the vehicle. Investigations showed that the incident would not have occurred if there had been no manual intervention. [32] [33] No passengers were on board the shuttle when the incident happened, and no injuries were reported. [30] [29] [34] [31] As a result of this incident, CDG and LTA reviewed the operating procedures for transitions between autonomous and manual driving. [30]
On 4 March 2026, Jeffrey Siow announced that two routes of the autonomous shuttle services would be available to the public on 1 April 2026. A third route to be operated by ComfortDelGro was also stated to be in development. Plans were also announced to begin trials in other regions of Singapore, such as Sentosa, Tuas, and Mandai, if the rollout of shuttle services in Punggol is considered to be successful. [2] [3] [35]
Registrations for the service operated by Grab and WeRide began on 25 March 2026. [26] [36] [35]
On 1 April 2026, routes 1 and 3 of the autonomous shuttle opened to the public, alongside a shorter variant of route 3 called 3 mini. [37] [38] [36] [39] [40] The service was made free-of-charge initially for a limited period of time. It was planned that the shuttle services would have a flat fare of S$4 starting in mid-2026. [2] [36] [38]
On 7 April 2026, Pony.ai announced that they had received regulatory approval to begin by-invite community rides of the autonomous shuttles in partnership with CDG. [41] [42] [43] [44] [32] Invitees included residents of Punggol. [43] Trained safety operators remained in the vehicles during trials. [44]
The autonomous shuttles operate along fixed routes. [21] [45] [46] As of April 2026, routes 1, 3, and 3 mini are in service. [36] [39] [47] All shuttle routes are loop services. [37]
Routes 1 and 3 are operated by Grab, whereas route 2 is operated by CDG. Route 1 consists of four stops, and has a length of approximately 10km. Route 2 consists of 7 stops, and is about 12km long. Route 3 consists of 5 stops, and has a length of around 12km. [21] [48] [49] Route 3 mini is experimental and is a shorter variant of route 3. It operates on the same loop, but only stops at 3 stations and completes the circuit more quickly. [50] [51]
As of April 2026, the service uses a fleet of 11 autonomous vehicles. [36] [40] 10 of the vehicles are five-seater WeRide GXR electric vehicles, while 1 is an eight-seater robobus. [36] [22] The vehicles have a bright purple livery, and an amber beacon on the roof. [17] All used vehicles had passed Singapore's Milestone 1 (M1) assessment. [23] [52] [53]
The vehicles are able to use cameras and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to detect objects up to 200 metres in all directions, [52] [23] including in heavy rain. [54] [23] The vehicles were also trained to adhere to Singapore's traffic laws. [23] [54]