Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow said Tuesday that autonomous vehicles are not expected to displace Singapore's taxi and private-hire drivers soon.
The statement addresses growing concerns over workforce displacement as the city-state integrates self-driving technology into its urban transport network.
Speaking during a parliamentary sitting on July 7, Siow said there is a vast difference between the current human workforce and the scale of autonomous deployment. He said Singapore currently has more than 70,000 taxi and private-hire car drivers [1], while there are only about 20 autonomous vehicles [2] operating, mostly in Punggol [2].
Because of this disparity, Siow said driver jobs will not vanish in the immediate future. He said the transition to fully automated transport is a gradual process rather than an overnight shift.
"I expect there will still be a need for ‘many human drivers’ even 10 years from now," Siow said [3].
The current fleet of autonomous vehicles remains limited in scope and geography. By contrasting the 70,000-strong driver workforce [1] against the small number of trial vehicles [2], the government aims to reassure workers that their roles remain secure for the foreseeable future.
Siow's remarks suggest that while the technology is being tested and expanded, the infrastructure and operational requirements of the city still rely heavily on human intervention. This gap indicates that the practical application of autonomous tech is still in an early phase compared to the scale of the existing transport economy.
“"I expect there will still be a need for ‘many human drivers’ even 10 years from now."”
The significant gap between the number of professional drivers and the small fleet of autonomous vehicles suggests that Singapore is prioritizing a slow, controlled integration of AI transport. By setting a 10-year horizon, the government is signaling to the labor market that there is ample time for workforce adaptation and retraining before automation poses a systemic threat to employment.
