FairPrice Group to be first to use autonomous vehicles in public for supply chain operations
The group says it will now be able to automate “important but routine tasks” such as the transportation of goods
[SINGAPORE] FairPrice Group (FPG) on Wednesday (Oct 8) announced that it has received approval from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to use autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads for its supply chain operations.
In October 2024, the group conducted AV cargo transport trials in partnership with Zelos Technology – a Chinese AV technology company – and obtained LTA’s approval to transition to remote operations with the AVs in 2025.
FPG and Zelos signed an agreement on Tuesday to add about 30 more Zelos AVs to its vehicle fleet.
The group said it will now be able to automate “important but routine tasks” such as the transportation of goods within and between its distribution centres at Benoi and Joo Koon through the use of the Zelos Z10 AV, a Level 4 autonomous vehicle. The distance between the two locations is slightly under 2 km.
Last week, a BYD-linked consortium won an LTA contract to trial autonomous buses in public for three years. That followed a launch of AV shuttle services in Punggol, as the city-state continues its autonomous driving push.
Zelos’ Z10 has a load capacity of up to 1.5 metric tonnes, a range of up to 210 km, and 10 cubic metres of cargo space. It will be used to transport palletised stocks such as ambient produce, packaged products and “other essentials”.
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It is the first AV designed without a driver cabin to get approval from the LTA for Milestone 1 testing, which is a closed-circuit test consisting of basic manoeuvres that ensure the AV can navigate safely on roads.
The AV is expected to lower FPG’s carbon dioxide emissions by up to 27 metric tonnes per year, said FPG, and is could help free up staff to “focus on more complex work” instead of “manual tasks”.
The partnership between FPG and Zelos was facilitated by Enterprise Singapore, who also worked with the group to develop the economic use case for AVs in its logistics operations.
Vipul Chawla, chief executive officer at FPG, said: “Through this initiative with Zelos, we are bolstering our capability to support the nation’s supply resilience.”
The Z10 AV’s deployment on public roads in Singapore marks Zelos’ first successful deployment outside of China. Its AVs have been deployed across 190 cities in China, with a focus on the Shandong and Jiangsu provinces.
FPG’s ongoing expansion of its electric vehicle (EV) fleet is also expected to grow to over 160 EVs by the end of 2030 as part of its ongoing sustainability efforts.
