Less than a month after launching the first test of self-driving vehicles on the streets in Signapore, Cambridge-based nuTonomy Inc. announced late Thursday that it had struck a deal with an Uber-like company to significantly expand the trial.
Users of Grab, a ride-hailing firm similar to Uber and Lyft located in southeast Asia, will be able to book nuTonomy’s autonomous taxis through the app, as long as they are in the small, approved testing district, according to nuTonomy spokesman Jonathan Leibowitz.
NuTonomy, which develops the software for autonomous vehicles, started carting passengers around the testing district in self-driving taxis in August. Passengers had been booking the cars through a reservation service for the last several weeks, Leibowitz said.
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NuTonomy’s trial is ramping up at the same time Uber has launched a similar self-driving ride-hail program in Pittsburgh. In both programs, humans are in the driver seat to take control as needed.
Boston plans to begin a self-driving vehicle testing program in the coming months, though details about how it will function are slim.
Adam Vaccaro can be reached at adam.vaccaro@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @adamtvaccaro.