Hong Kong鈥檚 leader has pledged to find out the cause of a crash involving a pair of unmanned buses at the city鈥檚 airport, as he reassured residents that authorities will closely supervise companies testing driverless technologies.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday also said that autonomous transport systems were becoming a trend globally and that authorities would work hard to ensure they were safe for use in Hong Kong.
On Sunday, a pair of driverless buses used to transport staff collided in a restricted area of the city鈥檚 airport.
Though neither bus had passengers on board and airport operations were unaffected, the Airport Authority suspended part of its driverless bus operation to carry out an inspection, while the Transport and Logistics Bureau called for an investigation into the incident.
鈥淭hey must find the cause of the incident, so they can prevent this from happening again,鈥 Lee said ahead of his weekly meeting with the government鈥檚 top decision-making Executive Council.
At the same time, Lee noted that driverless transport was a trend worldwide and that autonomous vehicles had been used in the airport鈥檚 restricted area for almost seven years, covering a total of 2.3 million kilometres (1.43 million miles).
Hong Kong has been accelerating the development of autonomous driving services in the city, with the Transport Department last week extending trial runs to Tung Chung allowing three private driverless vehicles to be operated during each road test.
Trial runs became possible following the implementation of a new regulatory framework for self-driving vehicles last March. Since its implementation, authorities have scaled up trials from one vehicle to 10 simultaneously, while also increasing the maximum speed limit to 50 km/h (32mph) based on the trial route.
Local authorities would work hard to ensure the safety of the technology when it appeared in Hong Kong, Lee said.
鈥淚n Hong Kong, there are a lot of companies testing autonomous vehicles, where it involves a lot of different vehicle types, and the Transport Department will supervise them very strictly and review their actual testing situation,鈥 Lee said.
鈥淲e have very high requirements in this regard, residents can breathe easy.鈥
The buses that crashed were developed by Beijing-based Uisee, which has its global headquarters in Hong Kong and multiple offices on mainland China, as well as two research and development centres there.
Uisee launched its first driverless project outside the mainland at the airport in 2019, introducing driverless baggage tractors, followed by unmanned cargo tractors and patrol vehicles in 2021.
Driverless shuttles for staff were introduced in May 2023 and operate 12 hours a day.
As of last year, more than 60 autonomous vehicles operated round the clock at the airport.
The Airport Authority said all operations were suspended after the incident and service on one route was gradually resumed on Monday evening. Two other routes remained suspended pending further testing.
The authority added that it had requested a detailed incident report from the driverless technology provider and would continue to enhance autonomous vehicle safety and efficiency.