Drive.ai starts its autonomous taxi service in Texas
Drive.ai has launched its pilot self-driving taxi service in Frisco, Texas. With a mission to create self-driving technology that solves people's transportation problems"Š, the start-up has partnered with Frisco TMA to design a program that serves the community and brings them to and from the places they want to go.
In April 2018, Drive.ai touched down in Texas and began driving along the route in Frisco, collecting data to inform their deep learning AI systems, documenting the scenarios they encounter, and creating custom simulations to improve the way their vehicles perform on the roads. In the last four months, the self-driving vehicles have been driven on the streets of a geo-fenced route in Frisco, which crosses six lanes of traffic, takes the vehicle through parking lots, and involves pulling over to pick up and drop off passengers on-demand.
The start-up has been focused on creating a great user experience for those who will be hailing and experiencing these rides, and have been working with the city to educate the community and hear what people have to say.
In addition to "real world" logged miles, the self-driving technology racked up over one million simulated miles on the Frisco route. The one million milestone instills confidence in the company to enable them to deliver a safe, thoroughly-tested service to the public.
Simulations are a major component of Drive.ai's approach to self-driving, as running comprehensive simulations improves the vehicles' ability to foresee and handle a wider variety of driving scenarios"Š"”"Šthose that are common, and those that are less so. This is critical to ensuring the depth of the vehicles' understanding of the world around them, and in turn, the safety of passengers, other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.
With the self-driving program officially launching in Frisco, safety and trust are top concerns. The start-up believes that while their vehicles are designed to carefully heed all traffic rules, the fact of the matter is that one cannot control how other drivers behave.
Drive.ai uses modified Nissan NV 200s for the pilot programme which will run for six months. Under this programme, riders can use these vehicles free of charge. Drive.ai's ride-hailing services will be on-demand and can be booked through their smartphone app.
Drive.ai starts its autonomous taxi service in Texas
Modified on Wednesday 1st August 2018
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Drive.ai starts its autonomous taxi service in Texas