Move Over Uber, nuTonomy Beat You!

On August 25, 2016, nuTonomy, a developer of state-of-the-art software for self-driving cars beat Uber and became the first company to launch the first-ever public trial of a robo-taxi service in Singapore. nuTonomy said that they have confined the on-going trials within one-north business district in Singapore. It is the region where the company has been testing its autonomous car extensively since April this year.

Earlier this month, Uber announced that it will begin testing its creation of an autonomous vehicle in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Another interesting development which popped up right after was the American taxi-service provider joining hands with the Swedish automotive manufacturer Volvo to work in tandem on the development of an autonomous vehicle.

nuTonomy will invite select customers through its app to take a free ride in a self-driving car that employs the company’s revolutionary software which works with highly-accurate sensors on the vehicle. The company has chosen two cars for this public-trial run - Zoe from the French carmaker Renault and the i-MiEV from the Japanese automaker Mitsubishi. Both these cars are fully-electric. Adding EVs (electric vehicles) to this service has an added advantage as the awareness of environment-friendly commute is on the rise and nearly everyone wants to be a part of this change.

An engineer from the company itself will travel with the commuter during the trials to observe the vehicles’ real-world performance and take control of the wheel in case of an emergency. Uber, which is yet to launch the trials for its own self-driven cars, will reportedly follow the same protocol for emergencies.

Data collected from the tests during this public-trial run will be scrutinized carefully based on vehicle routing performance, overall passenger experience and the booking process. The study will help nuTonomy achieve its target of launching a city-wide commercial offering for a self-driving taxi service by 2018.

In addition to Singapore, nuTonomy is operating self-driving cars in Michigan and the United Kingdom, where the company tests its software in partnership with major automotive industry players such as Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover.