Autonomous bus projects are to get a boost from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) using some of the funding allocated to develop public transportation, MOTC Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
Lin made the announcement in his opening address to an international forum on autonomous buses at the Regent Taipei.
The development of autonomous vehicles might be a solution to challenges that public transportation systems face, particularly those that arise from demographic changes.
“Taiwan will soon be an ultra-aged society, with one in five people being a senior citizen,” Lin said.
“Rapid urbanization means that in the near future 80 percent of the nation’s population would reside in cities,” he said.
“In this situation, the nation would face a severe shortage of transportation service workers. Likewise, non-urban and remote areas would not be able to sustain growth of public transportation,” he said.
Therefore, the ministry would first focus on autonomous buses, Lin said.
“Mature development of autonomous bus technology would not only address a personnel shortage, but would also enhance public transit quality and quantity issues, as well as addressing congestion in urban areas,” he said. “In non-urban areas, it would maintain a high-quality basic transportation service.”
The ministry would support the development of autonomous buses through three policy changes, he said.
It has budgeted NT$24.5 billion (US$830.09 million) for a four-year project to begin next year that would develop the public transport system, Lin said.
Part of the funds would be used to help public bus operators retire older vehicles, Lin said, adding that operators would be subsidized for purchases of autonomous buses.
The ministry from next year to 2024 is to execute a project to develop intelligent transportation, he said, adding that it would receive NT$4.287 billion.
This project would fund the development of autonomous bus services, Lin said.
“A board of transportation technology was established last year and has identified several new technological developments that have potential for the industry,” he said. “Autonomous buses is among them.”
“The government’s role should be to create a better environment to facilitate investment in innovative services,” Lin said. “I hope that we can form a national development team for autonomous buses that would compete internationally.”
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires