US ride - sharing service Lyft has begun its first commercial pilot of autonomous vehicle service on public roads . The company is using self - driving cars to pick up passengers from the Seaport District of Boston , a growing technology hub in the city . The service uses cars from local firm NuTonomy , which was founded as a spin - off from MIT university in 2013 and has been testing the technology since 2014 . While the cars will have human safety drivers to take over in an emergency , the aim of the test is to allow customers to experience autonomous driving in a real - life situation .
US ride-sharing service Lyft has begun its first commercial pilot of autonomous vehicle technology on public roads. The company is using self-driving cars to pick up passengers from the Seaport district of Boston, a growing technology hub in the city. The service uses cars from local firm NuTonomy, which was founded as a spin-off from MIT university in 2013 and has been testing the vehicles since January. While the cars will have human safety drivers to take over in an emergency, the aim of the test is to allow customers to experience autonomous vehicles in a real-life situation.