Downtown Line 3 (Jalan Besar and Rochor Stations)

The Downtown Line stage 3 was opened on 21 October 2017. It is the second last stage of the Downtown line. The last stage is DTL3e, which was announced on 15 August 2014, in conjunction with the announcement of the Thomson-East Coast MRT Line.

Two stations, Xilin MRT Station and Sungei Bedok MRT Station will be added to the Downtown Line, with Sungei Bedok as an interchange station with the Thomson-East Coast Line. It will add an additional 2.2 km to the line with the extension.[26] Due in 2024, Stage 3e will join the current East West and future Thomson-East Coast lines that runs through Marine Parade.

However, it seems that there was a planning oversight. Jalan Besar and Rochor stations are around 300m apart - what's really puzzling is that users will have to sit through a loop of 9 additional stops to get to the other station.

This adds to the load of the DTL during peak hours and makes it difficult for commuters to walk to the other station directly. Users would have to exit 1 station, cross a junction before walking another 100m to get to the other station - without shelter from the weather.

The LTA should have designed an underpass to connect the 2 stations for transfer to be made easier, since there is an underpass along Sungei road.

There is even a thread on Hardwarezone dedicated to it - http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/downtown-line-3-intersection-town-why-no-interchange-transfer-5710900.html

However, it makes perfect sense for the authorities, as this means DTL3 users would have to pay more and waste more time for their commute.

What to expect of smart speakers in the near future

There are mainly two such products in the smart speaker market currently - Amazon Echo and Google Home. However, Microsoft is set to unveil its own version (powered by Cortana and Harman Kardon as the third party device maker) in the coming months.

Not much has been detailed in the specs for now but what remains similar with both Amazon and Google's competing products is that it will probably look and work like a speaker. As more companies jump on board to launch their iterations of voice activated home assistants, we wonder what would be next for such devices and what role would they play in the IoT (Internet of Things) grand scheme. Below are some possibilities which I foresee:

1. The next generation of voice-activated assistant (smart speaker) will most likely spot a screen. Sure, voice activation is cool, be it asking Alexa for news and to top up your fridge, commanding Google (home?) to turn on the TV for or asking Cortana for advice, However, the user experience still seems crippled without a user interface (in case the speaker/microphone dies)

2. Recognizing different voices.

3. String commands together. For now, each command needs to be separate. In the future, this limitation will probably be overcome.

4. Remote controlling over different locations. For now, while IoT still has limited applications, but in the future it would certainly work, security wise however, would pose a problem

5. Locating items within your house/areas of control. Ok this might be creepy. But to do so will mean that artificial intelligence has progressed to becoming "sentient" and knowing your house's blueprint entirely. This can work well when you are so used to misplacing items or work against you by an intruder/hacker. Of course, I dont think at this current moment there is any simple technology that allows for such an implementation, much less a home-based system.

Any other opinions? Feel free to add on