Drive.ai’s autonomous vehicle pilot program launches today
The company’s self-driving cars are taking to the streets in Frisco, Texas.
On your marks: Back in May, self-driving startup Drive.ai, based in Mountain View, California, announced its plans for a public summer pilot, joining the likes of other autonomous-car companies like Waymo. It has been testing its vehicles on Frisco’s roads since January—sometimes without a driver behind the wheel. The cars are equipped with off-the-shelf cameras, lidar, and a radar system, as well as software developed by Drive.ai.
Get set: Now that the company has done extensive real-world and simulation testing, it’s ready to start welcoming passengers today. For the next six months, a fleet of bright-orange self-driving Nissan vans will transport residents around an extensively mapped area of town.
Go: While the test will use safety drivers for now, the startup hopes to pull the humans from the cars by the end of the year. As Sameep Tandon, Drive.ai’s cofounder and CEO, told The Verge,“We want to make sure people feel safe seeing a self-driving car with no human behind the wheel, and become comfortable with it so it becomes routine.”
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