USA self-driving auto software developer nuTonomy has launched a public trial of a self-driving taxi service in Singapore’s one-north business district, a 2.5 square mile business district, where the company has been conducting daily autonomous vehicle (AV) testing since April.
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The autonomous vehicle software startup and spinoff of the MIT made its public trial and it is now underway.
Besides Singapore, nuTonomy is operating self-driving cars in MI and the United Kingdom, where it tests software in partnership with major automotive manufacturers such as Jaguar Land Rover.
Singapore’s autonomous taxi service is now invite-only and only a handful of people are registered, but the company hopes to expand operations to include many more people as the trial continues.
In the meantime, the taxis only will operate in a 2.5-square-mile business and property district called “one-north”, and pick-ups and drop-offs will be restricted to specified areas. Testers will then be accompanied by an engineer to examine the performance of the system, as well as take over when necessary. It will also collect data regarding the experiences of passengers, and will apply all the changes that need to be applied in time for its trade launch in the year 2018, according to Fortune. It will beat ride-hailing service Uber, which prepares to provide rides in autonomous cars in Pittsburgh, by a few weeks.
The service will begin small- 6 automobiles now, growing to a lots by the end of the year.
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Multiple companies, including Google and Volvo, have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for several years. nutonomy is one of them racing to launch self-driving vehicles, with automakers and technology firms striking new alliances.
