Participation in the smart city: disability and autonomous public transport in Singapore

Amidst the increasing interdependency between bodies and technology in smart city space, this article examines the extent to which disabled people can participate in the development and discursive construction of smart city technology. While citizen participation in urban planning and decision-making processes is ostensibly a key pillar of the smart city concept, the actual and meaningful capacity for citizens – especially disabled citizens – to translate their interests into smart city technology systems remains limited. In this article, we focus on the weaving of autonomous vehicle technology into Singapore’s city space as autonomous public transport is situated as an integral part of the country’s imagined future as a ‘driverless vehicle city.’ Findings from a qualitative content analysis of 86 newspaper articles about autonomous public transport, published from August 2013 to August 2025, and a series of online focus group discussions with 20 people with ambulatory disability indicate few opportunities for disabled people to democratically participate in autonomous public transport development and hold a stake in Singapore’s smart, driverless future, as well as a disappearance of disability from public communication about the technology. Reading technology communication and design as critical mediums that concretise standards for citizenship in smart city space in both material and symbolic ways, we emphasise the need for meaningful citizen participation, informed by disability, to develop smart city technologies in line with more democratic and emancipatory agendas.