AsianScientist (Aug. 30, 2016) – In the race towards driverless cars on the roads, Singapore is leading the pack with the first-ever public trial of robo-taxi services launched on August 26.
The trial is run by Singapore-based software developer nuTonomy within Singapore’s one-north business district, where it has been conducting daily autonomous vehicle (AV) testing since April. nuTonomy is the first private company that has been approved to test AVs on public roads in Singapore.
Select members of the public will be invited to book a free ride in a nuTonomy self-driving car using nuTonomy’s ride-hailing smartphone app. The rides will be provided in a Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle specially configured for autonomous driving. To ensure passenger comfort and safety, an engineer from nuTonomy will ride in the vehicle to observe system performance and assume control if needed.
Throughout the trial, nuTonomy will collect and evaluate data related to software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the vehicle booking process, and the overall passenger experience, in preparation for the launch of a commercial robo-taxi service here in 2018.
“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,” said Mr. Karl Iagnemma, who is the CEO and co-founder of nuTonomy.
“The trial represents an opportunity to collect feedback from riders in a real-world setting, and this feedback will give nuTonomy a unique advantage as we work toward deployment of a self-driving vehicle fleet in 2018.”
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Source: nuTonomy Inc.
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