The race of driverless taxis – Le Parisien

IT PROMISES! Besides some tests on circuit, no autonomous car-free for the time in the world. Yet the war driverless vehicle has indeed started. For proof, the company American VTC Uber has just been doubled in Singapore by younger and faster it …

In the streets of the “Switzerland of Asia” a young start-up, nuTonomy, has just put into circulation 6 electric taxis without drivers. After the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Boston in the US, the company is ahead, a few days, the launch by Uber a hundred Volvo cars without drivers in Pittsburgh. Although, for the moment, the three Renault Zoe and the three Mitsubishi i-MiEV nuTonomy keep an engineer on board, to oversee that everything is going well on the road.

Generalization scheduled in 2018

And the taxis of the future can only carry passengers in well-defined areas of Singapore and they booked their travel via a mobile application. Once testing is complete, nuTonomy plans to deploy its autonomous taxis throughout the city in 2018. Both say tomorrow … and nuTonomy has already raised why nearly 18 million.

Across the globe, Similar projects are multiplying. Among them, the Alphabet, parent company Google, which plans to commission its own fleet before the end of this year, based on a partnership with Fiat Chrysler. France is no exception. This summer, the government has authorized the experiments of “cars delegation of conduct” on French roads. A first step towards a more radical change in the law because time; Renault and PSA are the teeth. Public transport too.

Between 2014 and 2015, an experiment was conducted in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) where six minibus without driver, 100% electric and can carry up to ten people, conducted nearly 15,000 trips. With sufficiently conclusive results so that other cities are inspired. On 3 September, in Lyon, is an electric bus that should make three stops rolling up to 45 km / h. And without driver.