Skip to main content

Self-driving taxis take to the road in Singapore

US self-driving car software developer nuTonomy has launched a public trial of a self-driving taxi service in Singapore’s one-north business district, a 2.5 square mile business district, where the company has been conducting daily autonomous vehicle (AV) testing since April. nuTonomy’s cars, a Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV specially configured for autonomous driving, will have an engineer from nuTonomy in the vehicle to observe system performance and assume control if needed to ensure passenger comfo
August 26, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
US self-driving car software developer nuTonomy has launched a public trial of a self-driving taxi service in Singapore’s one-north business district, a 2.5 square mile business district, where the company has been conducting daily autonomous vehicle (AV) testing since April.

nuTonomy’s cars, a Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV specially configured for autonomous driving, will have an engineer from nuTonomy in the vehicle to observe system performance and assume control if needed to ensure passenger comfort and safety.

Throughout the trial, nuTonomy will collect and evaluate valuable data related to software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the vehicle booking process, and the overall passenger experience. This data will enable nuTonomy to refine its software in preparation for the launch of a widely-available commercial self-driving taxi service in Singapore in 2018.

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.”

Related Content

  • May 5, 2016
    AV/ridesharing mix wins major auto investment
    The US has a new trend in personal mobility and David Crawford takes a closer look. US automaker General Motors and ridesharer Lyft’s announcement of a strategic partnership aimed at delivering, over time, an integrated network of on-demand autonomous as well as conventional vehicles has taken the nation’s car industry from traditional manufacturing to new arenas.
  • December 16, 2014
    Do satellites provide a heavenly view of tolling’s future?
    Satellite-based tolling opens up new options for authorities and can be integrated with DSRC systems as David Crawford discovers. As the proud custodian of the European Union (EU)’s longest road network covered by a single (truck) charging scheme – and the only one to include all major roads - Slovakia has become the continent’s poster-nation for the virtues of GNSS/CN (Global Navigation Satellite System/Cellular Network)-based tolling. It is also proved to be a very fast implementer. Speaking at the 2014 I
  • October 29, 2015
    Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.
  • May 18, 2015
    Green light for Google self-driving vehicle prototypes
    Google has announced the next step in its autonomous vehicle program and is about to begin testing its new prototype self-driving vehicles on public roads. This summer, the company will move its cars from the test track to the roads with safety drivers aboard. The company has been rigorously testing the cars at its test facilities for several years. The new prototypes are based on the company’s existing fleet of self-driving Lexus RX450h SUVs, which has logged nearly a million autonomous miles and recen