The world’s biggest ride-sharing service has confirmed that it will soon launch a public trial of its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh within a few weeks.
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It added that such a model could be adopted in cities around the world. The service is now being offered to select members of the public, only through invitation.
NuTonomy’s fleet is now comprised of Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric cars.
The testing time-frame is open-ended, said nuTonomy CEO Karl Iagnemma.
By providing free rides, the company hopes to gain further insight and then improve the software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the vehicle booking process, and the overall passenger experience. “I don’t expect there to be a time where we say, ‘We’ve learned enough, ‘” he said. The eventual goal according to nuTonomy is to have a full self-driving taxi fleet in Singapore by 2018.
“When you are able to take that many cars off the road, it creates a lot of possibilities”.
“There are occasionally still areas where something pops up in front of a vehicle that you have never seen before”, he said. “This is really a moment in history that’s going to change how cities are built, how we really look at our surroundings”, Reuters report published in ET quoted nuTonomy executive Doug Parker as saying.
For this project, Parker’s company nuTonomy has entered into a special partnership with the Singapore government, which has long sought to turn the city-state into a hub for disruptive technology through generous financial assistance programs and research partnerships with firms like nuTonomy.
Though the area is still limited, nuTonomy plans to extend the range and number of vehicles before the year ends.
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“We face constraints in land and manpower”. The absence of clear rules for fully autonomous cars across the country contributed to the startup deciding to test in Singapore. This could mean less space for the passengers, but for the ones who don’t mind can ride for free. “We want to get a cross-section of society into our auto”. The ride was smooth and controlled, she said, and she was relieved to see that the vehicle recognized even small obstacles like birds and motorcycles parked in the distance. Over this period, the cars will still have a computer engineer and backup human chauffeur.
