Berlin (dpa) – Ride-hailing platform Uber and Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) firm Autobrains are launching a joint robotaxi programme in Munich.

A fleet of Level 4 autonomous vehicles is to be established in the Bavarian capital, the companies announced on Monday at the GTC technology conference in Taipei.

The taxi operates without a driver, which makes vehicles without a traditional driving position possible, as no human intervention is required.

Technologically, the project is based on the computing platform of chip giant Nvidia.

At the heart of the strategic partnership lies a move away from bespoke special-purpose vehicles, the companies said. Previous robotaxi services, such as Google subsidiary Waymo, rely on highly customized vehicle fleets with complex sensor arrays on the roof.

The companies said that the new programme in Munich instead establishes a model that is “agnostic” about the manufacturer, which means that the system can be easily integrated into existing production vehicles from a wide range of car manufacturers like Audi, BMW, Mercedes or Volkswagen.

For the automotive industry, this should open up the possibility of bringing their own vehicle platforms into an autonomous ride-hailing network without immense development costs.

German law on autonomous driving permits driverless operation under certain conditions in specified business areas. The launch of the commercial service is subject to pending regulatory approvals.

It is unclear which vehicle brand will be deployed first in Munich and who will operate the fleet. Furthermore, it is still unclear whether safety drivers will be present in the vehicles at the start of the trial, and exactly in which area and from when the test drives will take place.

Source: dpa.com