Singapore remains as the leading country in Asia, and second in the world, in terms of readiness to embrace autonomous vehicles (AV) for the second time, according to KPMG’s Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI), which measures various countries’ preparedness and openness to AV technology.

The index evaluated 25 countries globally, measuring their state of readiness for AV adoption against four pillars (policy and legislation, technology and innovation, infrastructure and consumer acceptance). Singapore was placed first in two of the four pillars, these being policy and legislation as well as consumer acceptance, and in terms of infrastructure.

Singapore has been pushing hard on AV development. It opened the Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research of Autonomous Vehicles (CETRAN) at Nanyang Technological University in 2017, which has a test town for driverless vehicles complete with traffic lights, bus stops, skyscrapers and a rain-making machine to offer realistic testing conditions.

It is also planning real-world field tests with driverless buses and shuttles in three areas (Punggol, Tengah and the Jurong Innovation District) for off-peak and on-demand commuting from 2022, and it is working with the Netherlands on an international standard for AVs.