First Self-Drivings Taxi Service to be launched by the end of 2016 in Singapore

Singapore has announced that it will be the first country ever in human transportation history to host a fully self-drivings taxi service. The self-driving taxi service is going to be powered by a startup called nuTonomy from the MIT, who raised a couple of millions in VC funds. NuTonomy is somehow “directly competing” with Uber and this might be a problem for them.

nutonomy self-driving taxi service

There’s no reason to view this as anything other than good news — for Singapore and of course for the entire world. Yes, it is definitely good even for Uber, if not for its primadonna desire to be “first.”

Google might present to the world something like this in the near future.

We believe that Uber can still be the first to officially launch a commercial self-drivings taxi service, even if nuTonomy are ready to launch the service surprisingly by the end of 2016. One of the founders told Reuters, “this is really a moment in history that’s going to change how cities are built, how we really look at our surroundings.

For once, a startup’s grand claims about the future actually hold water — once the idea of deliberately “navigating” a city no longer applies to trips beyond walking or biking distance, our relationship with the physical world will indeed change dramatically. The idea of a daily “commute” to work is entirely different when you have both hands free the whole time, as does the idea of “driving” to and from a bar for drinks. Not only will vast amounts of parking become open to development, but it seems likely that people’s willingness to explore new places will almost certainly increase as they can more easily move through unexplored parts of the city.

Less congestion, less pollution, less road-related stress… yes, self-driving cars will be quite a revolution.”