The Innovation & Design Programme was pleased to welcome Mr Ken Chan, Programme Manager at ST Engineering, on 1 October 2021 (Friday) to give a webinar on urban mobility and autonomous transport.
Focusing on autonomous vehicles (AVs), Mr Chan prefaced his discussion by stating any final year undergraduate student project can design and develop open-source software codes to move any autonomous buggy in a laboratory that has flat floor, bright lighting, and open space with predictable environment. However, while implying that the technology is currently available to build AVs that can operate in ideal environments, he suggested that the real challenge in the continued advancement and adoption of AVs is bridging the gap between ideal environments and real life application. He deemed this as operationalizing autonomous vehicles and explained that overcoming this real challenge of autonomous vehicles will require the creation of a “humanized computer”.
Mr Chan then highlighted several focus areas in the AV System Platform. He explained that roads are designed for human drivers with good perception, recognition, eye sights and self-learning. As such, expecting an AV to operate under the same road conditions would be like expecting the computer to perform the same as a human driver with the same performance, responsiveness and situation awareness. He continued by suggesting that rules of the road can be described as explicit (i.e. speed limits) and implicit which are rules typically informed by culture and common sense. While AVs are good at following explicit rules, adhering to implicit rules is more difficult and will require new strategies to balance safety and efficiency as well as infrastructure to help regulate traffic in a mixed fleet environment.
Mr Chan concluded his talk by describing “The Molly Problem” which addresses the ethical challenge of assuring the elimination of all accidents. He then engaged in a lively question-and-answer session.
The Innovation & Design Programme would like to thank Mr Ken Chan for a very interesting and informative discussion. Students who are interested to pursue projects and/or internships related to autonomous transport can reach out to him (chan.kokhoe.ken@stengg.com) or Mr Sim Zhi Min (engszm@nus.edu.sg).
