nuTonomy Beats Uber/Google to Self-Driving Taxis

Singapore became the first country to truly employ an autonomous vehicle on its roads.

The world first self-driving taxis will start taking passengers from today, although, the service is currently available to a select few who can get free rides, by booking through their smartphones.

The service is operated by a company called nuTonomy, a software startup in the autonomous vehicle space.

The company seems to have beaten up-start startup, Uber, and Google, in bringing self-driving vehicles to the public domain.

Naturally, nuTonomy’s service still seems to be in the testing phase.

The company is starting with six cars right now, but hopes to double that number by the end of 2016.

Also, the hailing of self-driving cabs is currently limited to the business district in Singapore. The cars being used include the Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi iMieV.

Engineers from the company will be sitting in the cars in order to observe their performance and ensure customer safety. These engineers will take over the driving if needed.

The self-driving venture from nuTonomy has been ongoing for a while now. NuTonomy actually started life in the U.S., founded in 2013 by Karl Iagnemma and Emilio Frazzoli of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s currently headquartered in Cambridge, MA, though also has a base in Singapore to oversee its work there.

Just like Uber’s tests in Pittsburgh, nuTonomy is also testing in Singapore, but with a real, but limited, service.

Related: Are You Ready to Let Robots Take the Driving Wheel?