NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
nuTonomy beats Uber to launch world’s first self-driving taxi trial in Singapore
News broke last week that Uber Technologies Inc. were planning on releasing a fleet of driverless cars for use by the public later this month – a first for the industry. The company also went on to acquire self-driving truck startup Otto, which had only recently come out of stealth, for a reported $680 million.
While Uber has been working hard to expand its self-driving fleet ambitions, the ride-sharing giant will not be the first company to release a self-driving taxi service after all. That achievement has gone to a lesser-known company called nuTonomy.
Singapore’s nuTonomy, which closed a $16 million series A funding round in May, has today launched the first-ever public trial of a robo-taxi service. The trail will be conducted in Singapore’s one-north business district, a 0.8 square mile area dominated by tech firms and biotechnology companies.
“nuTonomy’s first-in-the-world public trial is a direct reflection of the level of maturity that we have achieved with our AV software system,” CEO and co-founder of nuTonomy, Karl Iagnemma said in a statement. The feedback and data collected during the trial will allow it to refine its technology in anticipation of meeting its goal of a commercial robo-taxi service in Singapore by 2018.
Since April, the company has been privately testing self-driving cars in Singapore, as well as conducting trials in Michigan and the U.K. with partner Jaguar Land Rover Ltd., among others.
The trial in Singapore will invite select residents to use nuTonomy’s ride-hailing smartphone app and take a no-cost ride in one of nuTonomy’s self-driving cars. Users will then be driven in a specially configured Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle. NuTonomy will also have an engineer in each of its test rides mainly to observe system performance, but they will also have the ability to take control of the self-driving car if something goes wrong.
The trial will be extended to other parts of Singapore if it meets the various milestones set out by the Singapore government, details of which have not been released by nuTonomy.
While Uber may have been pitted to the post by nuTonomy, its trial will be on a larger scale taking place in the city of Pittsburgh, allowing the company to gather a larger amount of data compared with its smaller rival.
Image via: nuTonomy
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