Autonomous vehicle safety operators debunk misconceptions that they ‘sit there and do nothing’
Learning left-hand drive and giving feedback on the vehicle’s performance are just a few of the responsibilities of a safety driver.
Autonomous vehicle safety operators Sherman Seng (left) and Sarah Ahmad. (Photos: CNA/Mak Jia Kee)
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SINGAPORE: Step into an autonomous vehicle (AV) and it might be confusing to still see a driver behind the wheel.
Since the vehicle is self-driven, passengers sometimes ask what Ms Sarah Ahmad does as a safety driver.
“There are those who actually say ‘wow, your job is so simple, you just sit there and do nothing, and you can sleep … even retirees, or even if you don’t have a driving licence, you can do it’,” said the 45-year-old, who is part of Grab’s AV trial in Punggol.
The mother-of-four told CNA that these sentiments could not be further from the truth.
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“You have to be on higher alert as compared to when you are holding on to the steering wheel, because now you’re supervising the vehicle, so you have to make sure that if the car suddenly moves to the right, you need to take note of all the things that are happening,” she said.
“It’s as though you are a driving instructor, and the vehicle is the student.”
Besides having a driving licence, she had to also learn to operate a left-hand drive, as the AVs are from China.
“At any point you need to take over, you still have to drive,” she said.
Safety driver in ComfortDelGro’s Punggol AV trial Sherman Seng, 24, said: “My passengers often think that it’s a driverless vehicle, so I just sit there and do nothing.
“That’s not the case, because we have to maintain concentration almost all the time. The concentration part is there so that we are able to prevent unforeseeable events.”
AVs are a fast-emerging industry in Singapore, with pilots running for several years.
Both Grab and ComfortDelGro partnered with Chinese autonomous-driving technology firms WeRide and Pony.ai respectively to roll out autonomous shuttle services in Punggol.
The initiatives began with testing and community trials before Grab-WeRide opened rides to the public in April, followed by ComfortDelGro-Pony.ai in June.
Grab said in July that it would pilot an on-demand AV service in Punggol in the next few months that will allow riders to book an AV to travel directly between select pick-up and drop-off points.
It also said in September that it would be expanding its AV fleet from 10 to 50 in the next six months and broadening its AV service coverage within Punggol.
A Bill tabled in parliament earlier this month proposed to extend the existing regulatory sandbox for AV deployments on roads to Dec 31, 2028. This is to ensure that ongoing AV deployments can continue uninterrupted until a “more holistic legislation” is implemented, said the transport ministry.
TRAINING FOR THE JOB
Ms Sarah had been driving private-hire vehicles under Grab for three years before the company asked her last year if she wanted to join its new AV initiative.
While she had not heard of AVs in Singapore at that time, she had a general interest in new technologies and agreed to make the leap.
Training started in November, when she had to learn to drive a car on left-hand drive. The least intuitive part of training was when she had to let go of the wheel and allow the car to go on “auto mode”.
“Suddenly, they said that you cannot touch (the steering wheel), you just leave it alone, put your hands on your lap, and then that’s it,” she said.
“So when the car moves, I want to hold onto it; it’s just a natural reaction … so that required adjustment.”
Over time, she realised that being a safety driver required anticipation and alertness that normal driving did not prepare her for.
“The alertness is actually super, super high … you have to be even more alert because you’re not holding on; you do not know whether it’s going to stop, whether it’s going to move,” she said.
“You need to be alert so that if anything happens, then you can actually interject.”
Mr Seng said that he wanted to join ComfortDelGro as his father is a taxi driver, but decided to join the company’s AV service Zig Driverless in March as he was “drawn in” by the nascent AV industry.
Training took place in two phases – a month in Singapore that was spent both driving the car manually and in auto mode, followed by three weeks in Guangzhou, China, where the AV industry is more mature.
“During my training in China, they actually pushed me to my limits,” said Mr Seng.
He trained in unfamiliar road conditions with pedestrians walking across the road and motorcycles driving at him “at high speed” to test his reflexes and decision-making.
“Most of the things I’ve learned in Singapore, I was able to bring over to China,” he said.
A DAY ON THE JOB
A typical day for both safety drivers begins with inspecting their vehicles, ensuring that all sensors and cameras are not blocked or faulty.
They will then drive it manually to leave the parking spot, before turning on “auto mode”, with their hands off the wheel.
Other than rides with passengers, they also do familiarisation rides so the vehicles can “get used” to the Punggol area.
Ms Sarah said that during testing, she also gives feedback that would help improve future rides. For example, she said that earlier this year, she gave feedback that the AV braked too harshly when approaching a red light.
This led to changes where the vehicle would travel slightly slower when approaching traffic lights, such that any braking, if needed, would not feel too harsh.
She may also be required to take over manually if there are any incidents on the road. One instance was when a traffic marshal waved for the AV to proceed past some road works, but the vehicle could not “understand” what the hand motion meant.
“There was a space for it to move, just that it didn’t move because there was somebody at the front,” she said. “So I had no choice – manually take over.”
The cars have also stopped on the roads for creatures as small as squirrels, monitor lizards and chickens.
Mr Seng said that once a chicken crossed the road and stopped in front of the AV, causing a “stand-off” between both.
“It is not willing to take the risk, so my AV actually waited for the chicken to cross the road,” he said.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Then-Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow said in an interview last year that safety drivers would be needed on AVs in the short term, but that their longer-term role would “depend on how the industry evolves”.
When asked how they felt about helping to refine a system that may make their roles redundant, Mr Seng said that as the technology evolves, he is confident that more opportunities in the AV industry will open up.
“We can branch out to become remote operators, or take on leadership roles, where we can be either team leaders or trainers, so I am confident that we won’t run out of jobs so fast,” he said.
Such operators can take over an AV from a remote location like company headquarters and drive it to safety.
Ms Sarah said that safety drivers will be around for the foreseeable future as they are needed to map out new areas in Singapore, beyond Punggol.
“We definitely need a lot of safety operators,” she said. “It’s very far into the future where it can be totally driverless all over the place.”
She said that many backend roles exist within the AV industry, such as in maintenance, mapping and vehicle testing.
The Ministry of Transport in July introduced a manpower transition package for taxi and private hire car drivers in partnership with the Manpower Ministry, the National Trades Union Congress, ComfortDelGro and Grab.
Part of the package is a career conversion programme for AV specialists that will equip drivers with skills to enter roles in the AV sector, including safety drivers, remote operators and fleet management positions.
OTHER AV ROLES
Mr William Tan has worked as a fleet manager at Zig Driverless since October last year, when he made the switch from an operations support role in the company.
The 42-year-old monitors the fleet of AVs and is in close communication with the safety driver. Where there were more “system hiccups” in the early days of AV deployment, they have had fewer over time.
He is also tasked with taking charge if the AV runs into incidents, such as an accident, to ensure all parties are safe and if the vehicle needs to be towed or driven back.
For example, Mr Tan was at the scene in January when an AV collided with a road divider.
He also speaks regularly with AI firm Pony.ai, where he gives them feedback and updates on how the vehicles performed, as well as areas for improvement.
“Sometimes they are able to resolve it immediately, or they might have to on their back end for a few days,” he said.
He added that the AV industry is “growing very fast and very well” and there is a pipeline for safety operators to join his ranks.
“I look forward to the day (when) we are able to remove our safety operators from the vehicle and let the vehicle run autonomously by itself,” he said.
Source: CNA/jx(mi)
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