Grab partners nuTonomy to test its self-driving cab service in Singapore

Uber's Southeast Asian rival Grab, is trying to become friends with Uber's latest rival, nuTonomy setting a clear example that 'Enemy's enemy is a friend'.

Grab was pretty confident to outdo the American ride-hailing giant but then entered Singapore-based startup on the scene to beat all the tech and automobile companies to launch pilot for self-driving cars. Now, Grab has partnered with nuTonomy to let commuters ply the autonomous vehicles.

Grab’s app will allow select passengers to book and ride the driverless vehicles within a western Singapore district, where the vehicles are being tested. nuTonomy’s trial is limited to the government designated 2.5km square business district area called One North, but Grab passengers can go beyond the district, as one of the staff supervising the vehicle will drive to complete the trip.

With this association, nuTonomy gets the advantage of using the Grab’s tech resources for routing, managing supply and demand, mapping and more.

For now, the partnership does not include any investment by either firm. A Grab spokesperson confirmed the report by stating, "There is no direct monetary funding in nuTonomy. At this point, the partnership is focused on Singapore – though there may be other potential synergies between nuTonomy and Grab that we could decide to explore in the future."

The public trial will run for the next two months, and may be extended by the companies for as long as it continues to yield valuable feedback and data, the company mentioned.

nuTonomy plans to have 100 taxis working commercially in the island-nation by 2018.