Boston To Trial Driverless Car Testing

Both nuTonomy and the mayor of Boston have confirmed that nuTonomy driverless cars will be on the roads before the end of 2016. While the headlines about autonomous vehicles often go to Google and Tesla, and recently Uber, nuTonomy is establishing itself in this growing market. The startup, based in the US and Singapore, is a leading developer of self-driving software for vehicles, developing a complete solution for point-to-point mobility. With one of the founders hailing from MIT, it’s no wonder that they’ve chosen Boston as a testing ground.

All-electric Renault Zoes, with the autonomy software on board, will be the cars touring the seaport district of the Massachusetts city, supervised by a “research driver”. The purpose of the tests is for the software to gain real knowledge of the local signage and road marking, as well as gaining a better understanding of the complex social rules — such as driver and pedestrian behaviour and their interactions — of the road, and even the weather conditions that form the real-life driving experience. 

These tests come after a period of testing in Singapore and will look to build upon the knowledge gained from those road tests, even comparing different countries’ patterns of behaviour. nuTonomy intends to launch its self-driving mobility-on-demand service in Singapore in 2018.

nuTonomy also recently forged a partnership with Grab, a ride-hailing app, to support the expansion of nuTonomy’s ongoing public trial of self-driving cars in Singapore. The trial is giving select Grab users a chance to experience the full end-to-end experience of e-hailing and riding in a nuTonomy self-driving vehicle in and around Singapore’s one-north business district.