The good news for those watching closely the development of self-driving cars is that over in Boston, the city has finally come on board with allowing the testing of self-driving vehicles on its streets. This is according to a report from the Boston Herald in which tests are expected to begin at the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park on the 3rd of January.Why is this good news? Basically with more cities opening themselves up for self-driving vehicle testing, it will help advance the technology as these vehicles will have more real-world experience, as opposed to driving around in a controlled setting like a track. The company set to do the testing is nuTonomy, which some of you guys might be familiar with as the company that launched self-driving taxis in Singapore.
According to Karl Iagnemma, chief executive of nuTonomy, “We are ready to go, basically could have been testing any time over the last couple of weeks, we were just waiting for this final approval. It’ll start simple, it’ll be driving straight down the street at a low speed and then you build up the complexity from there.”
Bill Messner, a robotics professor at Tufts University, suggests that Boston is a great place to test out the technology. “Boston is in fact one of the most challenging places to test. No. 1 is weather and No. 2 is the crazy street layout we have,” which means that it should teach cars and carmakers how to navigate such roads. He also adds, “It’s a great thing for our city and our state. It’ll change the world, and we’ll have influence on it.”
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