I do not think I'd trust a self driving car....
On 2016-08-27 01:32 PM, Steve wrote:
World's First Self-Driving Taxis to Start Picking Up Passengers in Singapore
SINGAPORE The world's first self-driving taxis will be picking up passengers
in Singapore starting Thursday. Select members of the public will be able
to hail a free ride through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy,
an autonomous vehicle software startup. While multiple companies, including
Google and Volvo, have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for
several years, nuTonomy says it will be the first to offer rides to the
public.
It will beat ride-hailing service Uber, which plans to offer rides in
autonomous cars in Pittsburgh, by a few weeks. The service will start small
six cars
now, growing to a dozen by the end of the year. The ultimate goal, say
nuTonomy officials, is to have a fully self-driving taxi fleet in Singapore
by 2018,
which will help sharply cut the number of cars on Singapore's congested
roads. Eventually, the model could be adopted in cities around the world,
nuTonomy
says. For now, the taxis only will run in a 2.5-square-mile business and
residential district called "one-north," and pick-ups and drop-offs will be
limited
to specified locations. And riders must have an invitation from nuTonomy to
use the service. The company says dozens have signed up for the launch, and
it plans to expand that list to thousands of people within a few months. The
cars modified Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electrics have a driver in
front who is prepared to take back the wheel and a researcher in back who
watches the car's computers. Each car is fitted with six sets of Lidar a
detection
system that uses lasers to operate like radar including one that constantly
spins on the roof. There are also two cameras on the dashboard to scan for
obstacles and detect changes in traffic lights. The testing time-frame is
open-ended, said nuTonomy CEO Karl Iagnemma. Eventually, riders may start
paying
for the service, and more pick-up and drop-off points will be added. NuTonomy
also is working on testing similar taxi services in other Asian cities as
well as in the U.S. and Europe, but he wouldn't say when. "I don't expect
there to be a time where we say, `We've learned enough,"' Iagnemma said. Doug
Parker, nuTonomy's chief operating officer, said autonomous taxis could
ultimately reduce the number of cars on Singapore's roads from 900,000 to
300,000.
"When you are able to take that many cars off the road, it creates a lot of
possibilities. You can create smaller roads, you can create much smaller car
parks," Parker said. "I think it will change how people interact with the
city going forward. NuTonomy, a 50-person company with offices in
Massachusetts
and Singapore, was formed in 2013 by Iagnemma and Emilio Frazzoli,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers who were studying robotics
and developing
autonomous vehicles for the Defense Department. Earlier this year, the
company was the first to win approval from Singapore's government to test
self-driving
cars in one-north. NuTonomy announced a research partnership with Singapore's
Land Transport Authority earlier this month. Singapore is ideal because it
has good weather, great infrastructure and drivers who tend to obey traffic
rules, Iagnemma says. As a land-locked island, Singapore is looking for
non-traditional
ways to grow its economy, so it's been supportive of autonomous vehicle
research. Auto supplier Delphi Corp., which is also working on autonomous
vehicle
software, was recently selected to test autonomous vehicles on the island and
plans to start next year. "We face constraints in land and manpower. We want
to take advantage of self-driving technology to overcome such constraints,
and in particular to introduce new mobility concepts which could bring about
transformational improvements to public transport in Singapore," said Pang
Kin Keong, Singapore's Permanent Secretary for Transport and the chairman of
its committee on autonomous driving. Olivia Seow, 25, who does work in
startup partnerships in one-north and is one of the riders nuTonomy selected,
took
a test ride of just less than a mile on Monday. She acknowledged she was
nervous when she got into the car, and then surprised as she watched the
steering
wheel turn by itself. "It felt like there was a ghost or something," she
said. But she quickly grew more comfortable. The ride was smooth and
controlled,
she said, and she was relieved to see that the car recognized even small
obstacles like birds and motorcycles parked in the distance. "I couldn't see
them
with my human eye, but the car could, so I knew that I could trust the car,"
she said. She said she is excited because the technology could free up her
time during commutes or help her father by driving him around as he grows
older. An Associated Press reporter taking a ride Wednesday observed that the
safety driver had to step on the brakes once, when a car was obstructing the
test car's lane and another vehicle, which appeared to be parked, suddenly
began moving in the oncoming lane. Iagnemma said the company is confident
that its software can make good decisions. The company hopes its leadership in
autonomous driving will eventually lead to partnerships with automakers, tech
companies, logistics companies and others. "What we're finding is the number
of interested parties is really overwhelming," he said.
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