Driverless taxis debuted Thursday in Singapore, thanks to a startup company called nuTonomy.




The taxis are being tested with several dozen people around the city, and the data collected from the trial will provide better information for nuTonomy as they hope to launch their service full time in just two years.




“This feedback will give nuTonomy a unique advantage as we work toward deployment of a self-driving vehicle fleet in 2018,” said nuTonomy chief executive and co-founder Karl Iagnemma, in an article published by the Bangkok Post. “The trial represents an extraordinary opportunity to collect feedback from riders in a real-world setting.”




The people participating in the trial runs of the taxis have been invited to participate by nuTonomy, and can order the service via their smartphone, similar to Uber and Lyft rides. Right now in the testing phase, there are six taxis (with the goal of expanding to 12 by the end of the year) on the road operating in a 2.5 square mile area. The taxis, which are modified Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electrics, are equipped with six sets of lidar and two cameras. While the drives are autonomous, the vehicles include a company engineer who monitors the drive and is on standby in case of emergency.




If everything goes according to plan, then the service provided by nuTonomy could cut the number of cars on the road from 900,000 to 600,000, according to nuTonomy's Chief Operating Officer Doug Parker. Parker envisions a world of endless possibilities if his estimates are correct.




“When you are able to take that many cars off the road, it creates a lot of possibilities,” said Parker via the Associated Press. “You can create smaller roads, you can create much smaller car parks. I think it will change how people interact with the city going forward.”

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