NuTonomy launches self-driving taxi trial in Singapore

What! World’s First Self-Driving Trial Taxi Service kicks off In Singapore:- The buzz about the driverless taxi is on a cliff in recent times.

nuTonomy, a US-based tech startup, that developed the software used in the vehicles, said the data from the test will feed into the roll-out of driverless taxis across the city-state in 2018.

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Multiple companies have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for several years.

The trial is on an on-going basis, nuTonomy said, and follows private testing that began in April.

During the test, people will be able to use the service of one of the six driverless NuTonomy cars on the streets, which are using a sensory and self-driving technology. While Uber’s first self-driving cars are set to launch this month in Pittsburgh, nuTonomy is the first company to actually roll out its self-driving fleet in a move created to reduce congestion on the city streets. In addition, for now the taxis only run in a 6.5 square kilometre business and residential district called “one-north”, and pick-ups and drop-offs are limited to specified locations. With the help of the passengers and analysts, the company hopes to upgrade the service before its launch. This is exactly how previous self-driving initiatives have worked for other companies around the world, including Google and Uber – there is always a human backup “driver” in the vehicle when it’s on public roads. The government there has been an enthusiastic supporter, helping develop regulations that encourage companies to test and deploy the technology.

The first ever self-driving taxis available to the public have started picking up passengers in Singapore.

The rides will be on modified vehicles such as the Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi iMiEV electric auto.

Doug Parker, CEO of nuTonomy, said the introduction of driverless cars would eventually help Singapore in reducing the number of vehicles on its roads to a third, which now stands at 900,000.

Earlier this month, nuTonomy partnered up with the Land Transit Authority to support autonomous vehicle development in Singapore. However, the future of self-driving public transport looks very, very bright in Singapore and beyond. NuTonomy says that its ultimate goal is to have a full self-driving taxi fleet in Singapore by 2018. Autonomous vehicles are sold as safer and more reliable than human drivers, but many people say they distrust machines because they aren’t capable of making moral or instinctive decisions as a human may do.

Semi-autonomous technology is typically what the industry considers to be level 3 autonomy because it still requires a person to remain engaged behind the wheel of the vehicle.