Last month, MIT spin-out firm Nutonomy launched a pilot test of its self-driving cabs in Singapore. Now, it’s teaming up with Grab, Uber’s rival in Southeast Asia, to extend the trial with a larger user base.
TechCrunch notes that the test phase will run for two months to begin with, in the One North area in Singapore, and Grab users can book a free ride through the company’s app. Passengers can travel beyond the 2.5 km square business district, but then the on-board human supervisor in the front seat will have to take the wheel to complete the trip.
Grab told TechCrunch that it’s interested in bringing self-driving vehicles to other Southeast Asian countries, but it first wants to concentrate on extensive testing in Singapore, where advanced infrastructure makes its trials feasible.
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While Uber is developing its own technology and handling mapping in-house, Grab is partnering with Nutonomy with neither party investing in the other. News of the partnership follows Uber’s self-driving trials in Pittsburgh, and it’ll be interesting to see which taxi service is able to roll out autonomous vehicles publicly first.
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