Yet another Hacker News

33 points ramanan 1 hour ago 12 comments

cranky908canuck 1 hour ago | parent

Must be early in the process, most if not all the photos and graphics where the driving side is visible show North American side driving.

goatsi 32 minutes ago | parent

They are apparently up to two years out from carrying passengers

"Waymo said it will introduce its fully autonomous, all-electric ride-hailing service in Singapore via the Waymo app by 2028.

An initial fleet of all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles is expected to arrive in the coming months, it said.

Mapping and validation activities are scheduled for 2027, with trained autonomous specialists conducting initial manual driving to adapt the Waymo Driver to local road geometry, monsoon weather patterns, and more. "

https://mothership.sg/2026/09/waymo-self-driving-cars-singap...

vineyardmike 23 minutes ago | parent

What do you mean? There’s very few images of a car driving, but the roads seem to be correct. Some of the images are definitely generic marketing copy and not Singapore specific, but it seems fairly obvious which ones.

Unless you mean the steering wheel is on the wrong side, but that seems like it wouldn’t matter for an autonomous vehicle.

rottencupcakes 33 minutes ago | parent

Singapore has the potential to be the first country to eliminate the private ownership of vehicles.

tristanj 23 minutes ago | parent

Singapore will not be the first. Albania banned private vehicle ownership for over 40 years until 1991.

vachina 21 minutes ago | parent

This thing is DOA if it only does predetermined route, which I think is what's going to happen.

danpalmer 9 minutes ago | parent

Why do you think that? Waymo hasn't done that anywhere else.

shell0x 18 minutes ago | parent

A basic commuter car costs over S180,000( US135,000) due to a compulsory 10-year quota license (COE/certificate of entitlement) that alone costs S$100,000+, plus registration taxes scaling up to 320% of the car's base value. Total running costs (tolls, parking, road tax) easily add S1,000–S2,000+ per month.

Singapore is so small though and cabs are cheap and I never needed a car. I can see why Waymo will be very attractive.

vachina 16 minutes ago | parent

If you never needed a car in Singapore then why is the COE so expensive? COE price is determined from a bidding process.

shell0x 14 minutes ago | parent

I said I never needed a car there :) I can get anywhere by cab in like < 30 mins so I never saw the need to have one. However there are plenty of ultra rich people living there and also many driving luxury cars. It's also a status symbol there(Credit card/Condo/Car).

orsenthil 17 minutes ago | parent

Singapore is a controlled economy, and has a large workforce for Taxi Drivers and part-time drivers through Grab. I am not sure how the entrenchment of robotaxis like Waymo (and future tesla) is going to play with the general population. My guess, they will co-exist as the government wont jeopardize the living of the taxi-driver-complaining uncles.

Also, I notice a lot new SF based AI companies have started establishing their offices in Singapore too. Sierra, and Fireworks coming to my mind. As government plays a huge part in Singapore, I guess, government noticing these as necessary investments for the future of Singapore.

yellow_lead 12 minutes ago | parent

> Singapore is a controlled economy

Singapore is a mixed economy [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Singapore