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Grab partners with MIT-spinoff nuTonomy to allow hailing of its self-driving cars

By Koh Wanzi - on 23 Sep 2016, 11:20am

Grab partners with MIT-spinoff nuTonomy to allow hailing of its self-driving cars

Image Source: nuTonomy

Grab is officially making a foray into the self-driving car space. The Southeast Asian ride-hailing service has now partnered with nuTonomy, an MIT spinoff working on autonomous vehicles, to enable hailing of the latter’s self-driving cars from the Grab app.

NuTonomy first gained prominence for beating Uber to publicly test of self-driving cars. The startup has been testing autonomous vehicles in one-north since April, and it inked a deal with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in August to begin the first public trial of its vehicles.

Its latest agreement with Grab will see it expand the scope of the trial by including Grab customers in the testing phase.

But while nuTonomy’s trial is limited to a 2.5km square area in one-north, Grab customers will be able to venture beyond these limits to adjacent neighborhoods. Starting today, select Grab users (registration link here) can book a ride in a nuTonomy vehicle through a new “robo-car” fleet icon. All rides are free-of-charge, and a nuTonomy safety driver and support engineer will ride in each car to monitor system performance and ensure passenger safety.

Image Source: Grab

If the trip requires travel on roads outside of one-north, the safety driver will assume control of the vehicle for that portion of the route. That said, only six vehicles – comprising modified Renault Zoes and Mitsubishi i-MiEVs – will be available initially.

The public trial is expected to run for the next two months, but may be extended by the companies as long as it continues to provide relevant data.

“This landmark tech partnership is a step towards supplementing Singapore’s transport network with an innovative driverless commuting option for underserved areas of Singapore – all accessible through the Grab app,” said Anthony Tan, CEO and co-founder of Grab.

Singapore has since proven itself quite friendly to the idea of self-driving cars. Back in August, a new center for the testing and research of autonomous vehicles was launched at JTC’s CleanTech Park just outside NTU. UK-based Delphi Automotive Systems also has an agreement with the LTA to provide it with a fleet of self-driving cars, along with the software for an on-demand mobility program.

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