No hands on steering wheel, but fully alert: Safety operators key to success of self-driving vehicles

SINGAPORE – Sherman Seng followed in his cabby father’s footsteps and found a job in the public transport sector, but he hardly touches the steering wheel when plying the streets.

Seng, 24, is a safety operator of autonomous vehicles (AV) for Zig Driverless, which is a unit under transport giant ComfortDelGro.

That means he picks up a vehicle every morning and drives it – in the conventional way – to a pick-up point for driverless shuttle rides in Punggol, and readies to ferry passengers starting at 9.30am.

Pre-vehicle checks, cleaning and team briefings are done before that, at about 8am.

When the shuttle starts moving, Seng’s task is to observe the behaviour of the vehicle and record mistakes like abrupt braking, sharp turns, not switching on hazard lights at pick-up or drop-off points, or being “indecisive” in giving way to oncoming traffic.

What sets his job apart from what his father did for 14 years is that Seng does not have to put his hands on the steering wheel when the vehicle moves – although he has to be just as alert on the road, if not more.

He said: “Autonomous vehicles are different, they’re a mode of future mobility... So I thought, why not? I can just give it a shot.”

Seng joined the firm in March after completing his national service, and holds a Higher Nitec certificate from the Institute of Technical Education.

He is the youngest in a team of 13 safety operators, who often refer to him as the “team’s baby”.

Like all safety operators under CDG, he completed three weeks of hands-on training in Guangzhou before operating driverless shuttles in Singapore.

CDG is one of two operators offering autonomous shuttle services in Punggol. Grab has been offering free public rides since April 1, covering three routes.

After the rides, operators provide feedback to the engineering team so that the AV system can be improved and become more intuitive.

They also help try out new versions of the system on a testing vehicle to make sure it is operationally ready before it is rolled out to the AVs that ferry passengers.

When carrying passengers, operators must be prepared to take control of the vehicle manually at any time, in case there is a system malfunction or dangerous situation. They also need to know how to solve minor technical problems the AVs face.

A safety operator’s shift usually ends at about 6.30pm.

Like his father, Seng has encountered difficult passengers – including a family that insisted that their child under 1.35m tall be allowed to board without a child booster seat.

At first, it was a little difficult for him to sit for long hours but thanks to tips from his father, Seng gets up to stretch every two hours, and that has helped.

In fact, his father came for a ride on an AV operated by Seng and said it as “better than his own driving”.

Taxi and private-hire drivers interested to make the switch to AV safety operators can take up long-term career conversion programmes and a new training scheme featuring short courses offered by the Skills and Workforce Development Agency.

Grab safety operator supervisor Sarah Ahmad, 45, who used to be a part-time private-hire driver, took up her new role in November 2025 because she felt it would be “exciting”.

She has been interested in technology since she was a child, and wanted to focus more on her career now since her four children – aged 13 to 16 – are old enough and are more independent.

Sarah’s month-long training stint helped her come up to speed about the technical specifications of AVs, how to ensure that the vehicle is in working condition, as well as how to manually take control of the vehicle.

One challenge she faced was getting used to driving on the left side of the vehicle, which she eventually adapted to, after adjusting her perspective of the AV and surrounding traffic.

It also took some time to get used to the hands-off approach on AVs – since operators are not supposed to touch the steering wheel or brakes.

Even her father, who sat on an AV operated by Sarah, was “frantic”, she said, when he noticed that her hands were not on the steering wheel. He warmed up to it after seeing that the AV was running smoothly.

While AVs in Singapore currently need a safety operator to be onboard, operators in Singapore one day hope to run fully driverless shuttles without an AV operator onboard.

But Sarah has already picked up new skills to prepare for the AV industry’s next development, as she is now qualified to be a remote operator managing multiple self-driving vehicles from an operations centre.

CDG fleet manager William Tan now manages the live operations of five driverless vehicles and 12 safety operators from the control centre, responding to dynamic situations during operating hours.

Describing his current role as “totally different ball game” compared with his previous role as an operations support assistant manager, Tan said it has been challenging but rewarding to learn about new AV technologies.

He said: “It’s really mind-blowing to me... The safety operator plays a very important role in guiding the vehicle, giving inputs so the back-end engineers will be able to improve the vehicle, and ensuring that it’s safe.”