The free ride on an autonomous shuttle is not the point. Building trust is

In February 2024, images of a Waymo robotaxi, engulfed in flames in San Francisco, circulated around the world.

Earlier this year, Grab began offering free public rides on its autonomous shuttle service in Punggol, attracting strong public interest and serving thousands of passengers.

More recently, ComfortDelGro joined the public trials with its own free autonomous shuttle service, even as Singapore announced new measures to help taxi and private-hire drivers prepare for emerging roles in an autonomous future.

The contrast is striking. In one city, a driverless vehicle became the target of vandalism. In another, residents have been actively signing up to experience the technology for themselves.

The difference is not simply about technology. It is about whether people trust not only the technology, but also the transition that comes with it.

As Singapore expands trials of autonomous vehicles (AVs), delivery drones and service robots, the question is no longer whether these technologies can work. Increasingly, they do. The more important question is whether people are willing to embrace them as part of everyday life.

Beyond the free ride

This is why the recent free AV trials matter.

At first glance, they appear to be little more than promotional exercises. After all, offering free rides is a straightforward way to attract attention and encourage people to try a new service.

But the real value of these trials lies elsewhere.

The free ride is not the product. Trust is.

Unlike most transport innovations, AVs ask users to relinquish something fundamental: the expectation that another human is in control. For more than a century, road transport has been built around the assumption that someone is behind the wheel, making decisions and responding to unexpected situations. AVs challenge that assumption.

For many people, stepping into a vehicle without a driver remains unfamiliar, even unsettling.

This highlights an important reality about technological adoption. Success is not determined solely by engineering performance. It is also shaped by how people perceive, understand and experience a technology.

History offers many examples. Elevators were once operated by attendants because passengers did not trust machines to move them safely between floors. Commercial aviation was initially viewed with scepticism by many travellers. Even driverless airport trains and automated people movers were once unfamiliar technologies.

Today, millions of passengers use systems such as the Changi Airport Skytrain without giving much thought to the fact that there is no driver onboard.

Today, most people use these technologies without a second thought.

What changed was not only the technology. It was familiarity.

Trust through experience

Research in psychology has consistently shown that people tend to be more comfortable with risks they understand than risks they do not. We routinely accept familiar risks in everyday life while remaining cautious about unfamiliar ones, even when the latter may be objectively safer.

Trust rarely emerges from technical specifications, safety reports or marketing campaigns alone. It is built through direct experience. A smooth and uneventful journey often does more to build confidence than pages of technical documentation.

This is where the free rides play an important role.

Each shuttle journey allows people to move from imagining what an AV might feel like to experiencing it for themselves. The technology becomes less abstract and less intimidating. Over time, unfamiliarity gives way to familiarity, and familiarity can become trust.

But how do we know whether that trust has actually been built?

The answer is not whether people sign up for a free ride. Curiosity and trust are not the same thing. Nor is it enough for people to express positive attitudes in surveys.

The real test is behavioural. Do people continue using the service when the novelty wears off and incentives disappear? Do they choose it when alternative transport options are available? Would they recommend it to family members and friends? Are they comfortable seeing it operate in their own neighbourhoods?

Perhaps the strongest indicator of all is when the conversation changes. Early discussions about new technologies tend to focus on whether they are safe enough or whether they should exist at all. Trust begins to emerge when people start discussing how they can be used most effectively and where they can create the greatest value.

Few passengers today think about whether the MRT is manually operated or whether the Skytrain at Changi Airport has a driver. The technology has become unremarkable. That may ultimately be the strongest sign that trust in AVs has been achieved as well.

A place in the future

This matters because Singapore’s interest in automation is not simply driven by technological enthusiasm.

The country faces a combination of demographic and economic realities that make automation increasingly important. Population ageing, slower workforce growth and rising demand for services are creating manpower pressures across multiple sectors.

Transport is one example. Public transport operators have long faced challenges recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of bus captains. Similar constraints exist in logistics, healthcare, security and municipal services.

Against this backdrop, technologies such as AVs should not be viewed solely as replacements for workers. In some contexts, they may help maintain first- and last-mile transport connections, operate services during manpower shortages, or extend mobility options for residents in areas where conventional services may be difficult to sustain.

For Singapore, automation is increasingly becoming less a question of efficiency and more a question of resilience.

Can essential services continue to operate effectively as labour constraints intensify?

Can technology help support an ageing society without compromising quality of service?

Can workers be empowered to focus on tasks where human judgment, empathy and adaptability remain indispensable?

These questions explain why Singapore’s conversation about automation differs from that of many other countries.

Yet trust is not only about safety and reliability.

The images of the burning Waymo vehicle attracted global attention because they appeared to symbolise broader anxieties about technology and social change. While the motivations behind that incident were complex, it serves as a reminder that public reactions to technology are rarely determined by technical performance alone.

People also ask broader questions.

Who benefits from these technologies?

Who bears the costs?

Will jobs disappear?

Will ordinary people still have a place in the future being created?

These concerns are particularly relevant as artificial intelligence and automation become more visible in daily life.

Since last year, my colleagues and I have been working closely with NTUC Strategy to better understand how AVs could shape the future of transport work in Singapore. Together with transport workers, operators, technology providers and government agencies, we have been studying how Singapore can introduce AVs in a way that is not only effective, but also fair and people-centred. 

One recurring theme in these conversations is that discussions about AVs quickly extend beyond the technology itself. Questions about jobs, skills and future opportunities arise alongside questions about safety and performance. It is therefore encouraging to see these issues now receiving greater national attention as Singapore prepares workers alongside technology. 

These are fundamentally questions about trust.

Trust in technology depends not only on whether systems are safe, but also on whether transitions are perceived as fair.

A society that embraces innovation must also demonstrate that it is prepared to support those affected by change. Reskilling opportunities, clear transition pathways and meaningful engagement with workers are not separate from technology adoption. They are part of it.

Recent moves to strengthen career conversion, training and career support for taxi and private-hire drivers recognise that building trust in AVs also means building confidence that people will be supported through the transition.

When technology becomes ordinary

This lesson extends well beyond AVs.

The autonomous shuttle may be one of the first ways many Singaporeans encounter AI operating in public space. But it is unlikely to be the last.

In the years ahead, residents may increasingly interact with delivery drones bringing goods across waterways, robotic cleaners maintaining public spaces, security robots patrolling business parks, AI-assisted healthcare tools supporting clinicians, and a growing range of AI-enabled public services.

Technical performance matters, but whether people embrace these innovations will also depend on whether institutions remain transparent, whether accountability is clear when things go wrong, and whether people believe the benefits are being shared fairly.

Singapore appears to start from a relatively strong position, with surveys suggesting comparatively high levels of trust in institutions and openness towards technology. But trust should never be taken for granted.

It must be continually earned through responsible deployment, transparency, accountability and genuine engagement with communities and workers affected by change.

AVs may help Singapore address pressing challenges, from manpower shortages to an ageing population. But their success will depend on more than sensors, software and safety records.

It will depend on whether people choose to use them long after the free rides end. It will depend on whether workers feel prepared for and included in the transition. And it will depend on whether society believes that the benefits of technological progress are being widely shared.

Singapore’s AV trials may look like simple demonstrations of new technology.

In reality, they are helping society become familiar with a future that is already arriving.

The free ride is not the point.

Building trust is.