Yong asks if ART is automated or autonomous rapid transport system

VIOLET Yong (DAP-Pending) seeks clarification whether the proposed ART mega project in Sarawak is Autonomous Rapid Transit or Automated Rapid Transit.

“I have noticed that from the many press reporting of the Premier or Sarawak, GPS leaders mentioning about this ART project, the abbreviation ART was referred to as Autonomous Rapid Transit. But in the Sarawak Metro Sdn Bhd’s website, the abbreviation ART is referred to as Automated Rapid Transit.

“So which is which? Both are ART but the two are totally different in systems,” she said when debating the Yang diPertua Negeri’s opening address in the august House yesterday.

Yong said the difference between automated and autonomous was the degree of human intervention.

According to her, an automated vehicle needs a driver to control it and does not have the level of intelligence or independence that an autonomous vehicle has.

She said an autonomous system is driverless and requires 5G network as foundation to run it.

She wondered if the ART project had suddenly changed to Automated Rapid Transit system because Sarawak did not have 5G or 7G network for it.

“I hope that there was no short-change in play and please do not think that Sarawakians are easy to be fooled and just believed what the Premier mentioned before by saying ‘in Qatar it is called automated rail transit and whereas in China it is autonomous rail transit’.”

Yong urged the Sarawak government to disclose information and data comprising route maps, vehicle and customer counts, occupancy surveys, boarding and alighting surveys for the proposed ART project.

“It is important to have such data and information so that the decision to opt for ART system is based on the needs of customers and not for political reasons where its benefits would accrue to few politically powerful people,” she said.

She asserted that the bus system remained the backbone of transforming Sarawak’s public transportation.

As such, she asked: “Why not just go back to the basic by improving the bus services and bus route network? Why not buy new buses and lend them to stage bus companies or subsidise the purchase of new buses?”

She further asked about the role the Sarawak Ministry of Transport played in this ART project.

“Why do we need to purposely set up Sarawak Metro Sdn Bhd to handle it when we have the Sarawak Ministry of Transport whose core businesses is to lead in the planning and implementation of an integrated State Transportation System for land and riverine, transport, maritime and aviation?

“Is there something going on that we are not aware of? Perhaps, the Premier could enlighten us on this,” she said.

I have noticed that from the many press reporting of the Premier or Sarawak, GPS leaders mentioning about this ART project, the abbreviation ART was referred to as Autonomous Rapid Transit. But in the Sarawak Metro Sdn Bhd’s website, the abbreviation ART is referred to as Automated Rapid Transit.

Violet Yong