American startup nuTonomy has entered into driverless electric taxis.
The company has now started trials on the roads of Singapore to reduce the city-state's traffic and pollution problems.
nuTonomy has been formed from MIT alumni including Karl Iagnemma, Emilio Frazzoli and Doug Parker who are the chief executive officer, chief technical officer and chief operations officer, respectively.
This startup is keen on developing driverless taxi fleet in Singapore and wants to make it more convenient and preferred option for Singapore residents in commuting.
nuTonomy co-founder and chief technology officer Emilio Frazzoli, an MIT professor of aeronautical and astronautical engineering said: "This could make car-sharing something that is almost as convenient as having your own private car, but with the accessibility and cost of public transit."
nuTonomy will compete against companies such as Google, Apple and Tesla in this field and unlike the tech giants, nuTonomy is more open about the kind of technology it is using for driverless taxi development.
It says that its experience in designing code for the US military to co-ordinate swarms of connected drones is the basis for the technology.
It is designing the technology in such a way that an autonomous taxi would opt for the shortest route possible to a destination to avoid traffic congestion.
At present, nuTonomy is in the process of obtaining permission from Singapore government to allow the testing of its autonomous-vehicle testing.
Frazzoli said: "Last week, nuTonomy 'passed [its] first driving test' in Singapore, meaning its driverless taxis navigated a custom obstacle course, without incident."
"Now, nuTonomy is in the process of getting approval for on-road testing in a business district, called One North, designated for autonomous-vehicle testing.
"In a few years, nuTonomy aims to deploy thousands of driverless taxis in Singapore. The company will act as the service provider to maintain the vehicles and determine when and how they can be operated safely."
Image: nuTonmy with its team and autonomous taxi. Photo: Courtesy of MIT News