World’s first self-driving taxis are on roads courtesy nuTonomy

When Google, Tesla, Uber and many other automobile manufacturers are busy trying to develop, test or perfect their proprietary autonomous tech, nuTonomy, a three-year-old startup has its automated taxis already on roads. The company announced the launch of the first-ever public trial of an autonomous ‘robo-taxi’ service in Singapore yesterday.

Selected people in Singapore received an invitation on Thursday to use its ride-hailing app to book a no-cost ride in the company’s new self-driving car. The on-going trial is being held within Singapore’s 2.5 sq km business district, One North. The company is also conducting a trial in Michigan and the United Kingdom and counts Jaguar Land Rover as one of its major automotive partners.

Check the video here:

nuTonomy, is using modified Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicles to provide rides to the public. These autonomous cars employ the company’s sophisticated software, which has been integrated with high-performance sensing and computing components.

With a nuTonomy engineer in the vehicle with the passenger, the company will continue to collect and evaluate valuable data to assess software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the booking process, and the overall passenger experience.

The data collected from this first-ever public drive test would enable the startup to refine and optimize its autonomous driving software and help in preparation for the launch of a widely available robo-taxi service by 2018.

Commenting on the same, CEO and co-founder of nuTonomy, Karl Iagnemma, said, "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. The trial represents an extraordinary 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."

nuTonomy, has also managed a fresh $16 million in Series A funding from Highland Capital Partners, Fontinalis Partners, Signal Ventures, Samsung Ventures and EDBI.