On December 11, 2023, WeRide announced that it has been granted both the Milestone 1 (M1) Public Road Test License and the T1 Assessment Public Path Test License for Special Areas (T1) by the Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA). This allows WeRide’s self-driving minibuses to be tested on a wider range of public roads in Singapore, including key areas such as One-North and the National University of Singapore. With this achievement, WeRide becomes the first and only technology company in the world to hold autonomous driving licenses in four regions: China, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.
The M1 license in Singapore is known for its stringent requirements, covering a wide range of aspects including basic autonomous driving functions, static obstacle detection, dynamic obstacle avoidance, safety driver vehicle control redundancy, and overall vehicle safety performance. Vehicles must successfully complete all these tests in a testing facility that accurately recreates real-world traffic scenarios in Singapore.
WeRide achieved this remarkable feat within just 3 months, arriving at the CETRAN Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Research Center of Excellence in Singapore on August 28th and obtaining both M1 and T1 licenses in one go. This sets a new record for the fastest license acquisition by an autonomous driving company in Singapore.
In the past decade, Singapore’s total transportation volume has increased by 66%, with road congestion and parking issues posing significant challenges to the local government. Additionally, the city-state is facing a rapidly aging population, with 30% of its transportation workforce being over 50 years old.
Developing high-density autonomous public transportation is therefore a crucial component of Singapore’s sustainable development strategy. This aligns perfectly with WeRide’s position as both a provider of autonomous driving technology solutions and an operator of autonomous driving mobility services. In October 2023, WeRide signed strategic cooperation agreements with Woodlands Transport Services and EZ Buzz, two Singaporean companies, further expanding its network of local partners.
Looking back at 2023, WeRide has made significant strides both domestically and internationally. On July 3rd, after nearly two years of dedicated efforts in the United Arab Emirates, WeRide received the first national autonomous driving license ever issued in the Middle East and globally. This license allows all of WeRide’s autonomous driving products to be tested and operated on public roads across the entire UAE. On November 17th, WeRide was granted a commercialization pilot permit for “in-car no-one, out-of-car remote” passenger services in the Beijing Intelligent Networked Vehicle Policy Pioneer Zone. This allows WeRide to offer paid Robotaxi services with no one in the car in Yizhuang, Beijing.
