World’s first self-driving taxis launched in Singapore

The world’s first self-driving taxi service was launched in Singapore. This launch is significant as it offer technology demonstration that could revolutionize the future transport industry. The self-driving taxi service was launched Singapore based nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup. With this nuTonomy became entity in the world first to offer self-driving taxi rides to the public. Key Facts

The Singapore government had given its approval nuTonomy to conduct the self-driving taxi trial for the public. NuTonomy has started this service with small fleet of six cars. It includes modified versions of Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car. Each car is fitted with six sets of Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), a detection system that uses lasers to operate like radar that constantly spins on the roof. There are also two cameras on the dashboard to scan for obstacles and detect changes in traffic lights. During the trail phase, these vehicles have a computer engineer and backup human driver in case anything goes wrong.