Starting on this week, residents of Singapore can hail a self-driving car as a taxi, thanks to It’s brought to U.S.-based nuTonomy by Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi. The new i-Miev taxis use an invite-only app.
The trial will offer riders a commute through Singapore’s one-north business district:
The startup, which in May received $16 million in funding, is narrowly beating Uber to the punch. The ride-sharing giant reportedly hopes to trial autonomous vehicles in downtown Pittsburgh sometime this month. Uber hopes that a fully autonomous Volvo will be a staple of its Pittsburgh fleet by the end of the year.
It’s not the first self-driving taxi trial, however, with driverless taxis doing the rounds in Tokyo earlier this year, courtesy of phone company DeNA.
“The trial represents an extraordinary opportunity to collect feedback from riders in a real-world setting,” said Karl Iagnemma, CEO and co-founder of nuTonomy. “This feedback will give nuTonomy a unique advantage as we work toward deployment of a self-driving vehicle fleet in 2018.”
Learn more here, and check out this video: