On Sept 20, ComfortDelGro announced that its autonomous shuttle service, Zig Driverless, will begin in Punggol later this year. The service will be available for booking via ComfortDelGro’s Zig app. The autonomous shuttles were developed in partnership with Chinese tech firm Pony.ai and will feature advanced sensor fusion systems, including LiDAR, radar and cameras, supported by high-precision mapping with centimetre-level accuracy, said ComfortDelGro at the time.
ComfortDelGro, long the dominant transport operator in Singapore, has been actively building its presence abroad, acquiring other transport companies, bidding for train operating contracts and renewing bus operating contracts. Its revenue profile, unsurprisingly, has transformed significantly, with over 50% now coming from outside the city-state.
Another transformation appears to be underway. Faced with a shrinking pool of taxi drivers, which affects its revenue generation, the company is turning to autonomous vehicles (AVs). As of August this year, ComfortDelGro’s taxi fleet fell to 7,816 from 8,669 a year ago.
