The Asian city-state has taken the lead in becoming the location of the world's first public experiment with self-driving taxis. The outcome of the trial is likely to revolutionize the global automotive industry.
Singapore became the first country in the world to launch a self-driving taxi service on Thursday, beating ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies Inc. by mere days to public road tests of a technology that could revolutionize the transport industry.
Select members of the public will be able to hail a free ride through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, a US-based autonomous vehicle software startup that has been conducting trials of self-driving vehicles in Singapore since April.
The company says it will be the first to offer rides to the public. It will beat ride-hailing service Uber, which plans to offer rides in autonomous cars in Pittsburgh, by a few weeks.
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| The cars are fitted with cameras that help detect traffic light changes |
NuTonomy is starting small - six cars now, growing to a dozen by the end of the year. The ultimate goal, company executives say, is to have a fully self-driving taxi fleet in Singapore by 2018, to help cut the number of cars on Singapore's congested roads. Eventually, the model could be adopted in cities around the world, nuTonomy hopes.
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| Inside the driverless car |
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Posted by , Published at August 25, 2016 and have
1 comments
At least this time isn't America
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