At Singapore’s Test Center, Self-Driving Cars Battle Fake Monsoons

In the tropical midday heat, I squint to take in the two-hectare test course before me. Here at Singapore’s autonomous vehicle (AV) test center, there’s no shortage of ways to put driverless vehicles through their paces with slopes, crosswalks, bus lanes, traffic junctions, and even a crank course consisting of sharp 90-degree turns.

But it’s an unassuming structure at the far end of the center that catches my eye. There stands a thin metal frame nearly 40 meters long, split into nine sections. It looks like a series of empty door frames. Atop each section sits three nozzles, together capable of releasing up to 150 milliliters of water per hour.

It’s a rain simulator one of the few found in AV test centers around the world. CETRAN, or Singapore’s Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research of AVs, also has a flood simulator. And for the first time since the center’s opening in late 2017, those simulators will soon be put to use as two companies, including MIT startup nuTonomy, begin adverse weather testing of their AVs in the coming months.