Singapore: Self-driving NuTonomy car collides with lorry, no reports of injuries

The company says the car was operating with two engineers onboard and travelling slowly.

Singapore: nuTonomy car collides with lorry, no report of injuries
A nuTonomy self-driving taxi drives on the road during its public trial in Singapore Reuters

Singapore transport regulator said a self-driving car which was being tested on public roads collided with a lorry on Tuesday, but there were no reports of any injury.

The Land Transport Authority said in a Facebook post: "The test vehicle was changing lane when it collided with a lorry."

NuTonomy, a US-based tech startup, is developing and testing the technology that will help the world to get its first driverless taxis.

In response to this incident, the company said the car was operating with two engineers onboard and travelling slowly.

Ride-hailing firm Grab partnered with nuTonomy in September to allow some users to book driverless cars via its app. The pick-up and drop-off points are set in the vehicle. Commuters will have to use the company's smartphone app to book their trips.

The company also added that although the high-tech cars will drive themselves a nuTonomy engineer will be there on each trip. The engineer will observe how the machine performs, and would be ready to take over in case of any problem.

This development of autonomous technologies has been encouraged by countries around the world. Singapore is also hoping that these driverless vehicles will encourage its citizens to use more shared vehicles and public transport.

Technology firms and other automakers, which are building self-drive cars, are closely watching the testing process of the technology. This will help in developing new business plans for what is expected to be a long-term makeover of personal transport.

Reports say four different groups are testing these driverless cars in a western Singapore district. Last month, the open test routes were doubled to 12 km (7.4 miles) for participants.

NuTonomy hopes "robo-taxi service" to hit the road by end-2016 after completing a proper trial services.

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