nuTonomy Launches Trial of Self-Driving Car Services and Ride-Hailing App

nuTonomy launched its first-ever public trial of a robo-taxi service. Specialising in software for self-driving cars, nuTonomy says the trial will keep going until further updates, and is currently restricted to operate within the country's one-north business district where daily testing for autonomus vehicles have been happening since April. During the test, selected Singapore residents will be able to hail nuTonomy's self-driving cars by using a ride-hailing smartphone app to book a no cost ride.

nuTonomy's self-driving cars are equipped with the company's software, which has been integrated with computing components and high-performance sensors. The cars used are specially-configured Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicles. Although completely autonomous, a uTonomy engineer will be assigned to each vehicle to ensure passenger comfort and safety, as well as to collect information.

Duting the trial, nuTonomy will collect and evaluate data to help improve the system's performance. This could lead to further improvements in route efficiency, booking process, and even passenger comfort. These improvements will hopefully lead to a more refined form ready for an official launch in 2018.

nuTonomy was selected by the Singapore Land Transport Authorithy as an R&D partner in order to develop a commercial autonomous vehicle (AV) service in Singapore. This trial is the first result of this partnership, and is the only one cleared by the government for testing on public roads.

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