NuTonomy Restarts Self-Driving Vehicle Testing In Boston Following Pause

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The self-driving vehicle systems developer nuTonomy has resumed its testing of vehicles on public roads in Boston (Massachusetts). This follows a short pause that resulted from the pedestrian fatality in Arizona caused by an Uber test vehicle, the company’s CEO has revealed.

The short pause was apparently requested by the city of Boston itself — no doubt partly as a means of gathering further information on the specific causes of the pedestrian fatality in Arizona and partly as a PR exercise.

Given that it’s very clear at this point that the fatality in Tempe, Arizona, was the result of Uber operating an unsafe system, and being possibly criminally negligent, it’s not too surprising that the nuTonomy testing pause was as brief as it was. Why stop your own testing when what you are doing is so much more conservative (and thus safer)?

Reuters provides a bit more information: “The city had asked the company to halt testing last week after Uber Technologies Inc’s fatal self-driving crash in Arizona. nuTonomy Chief Executive Karl Iagnemma told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New York on Tuesday that testing resumed today after talks with the city. ‘We’re back on the road,’ he said.”

For those unfamiliar with the firm, nuTonomy is a self-driving vehicle systems developer owned by the prominent auto parts supplier Aptiv Plc. The firm is currently operating a pilot program in Singapore, as it has been for the past couple of years, as well as self-driving vehicle test programs elsewhere.


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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