Lyft And nuTonomy Are Giving Public Self-Driving Car Rides In Boston

Lyft has started giving rides with a self-driving cars in the Boston region, nuTonomy has announced. NuTonomy is the company providing the vehicles to Lyft, which is sending them out to Boston's Seaport district to let people experience an autonomous ride. This a pilot program, according to nuTonomy, which says its engineers will use feedback to help improve the system.

The development of self-driving vehicles from a bizarre novelty to an everyday reality is happening quickly. While you still can't easily utilize an autonomous vehicle, the opportunity to see one or even experience one yourself is growing. This new Lyft pilot project is the latest example of that, giving "select" riders the chance to hitch a ride in one of these nuTonomy vehicles.

"Our partnership with Lyft has two goals," nuTonomy explained in a release. "First, we want to let members of the public experience driverless vehicles firsthand, so they can better understand the impact this new technology will have on their lives." The second, as mentioned above, is to get feedback to help the company's engineer in the future.

This is a milestone for the industry as a whole, marking the first time in the US that a self-driving vehicle company has teamed with a ridesharing company to launch a public pilot. If you happen to be one of the people who gets to experience the self-driving vehicles in Boston, you'll see a "self-driving nuTonomy ride" designation within the Lyft app.

Further details on this pilot, such as the scope of it and how long it will run, aren't provided. However, nuTonomy says it will provide additional information in "coming weeks," so stay tuned.

SOURCE: nuTonomy