US ride - sharing service Lyft has begun its first commercial pilot of autonomous vehicle service on public roads . The company is sending autonomous vehicles — developed by the startup NuTonomy — to pick up passengers in Boston’s Seaport district, which is a growing tech hub. 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 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 .