Driverless car collides with a truck in Singapore trial

A self-driving car being tested on Singapore public roads collided with a truck on Tuesday, the city-state's transport regulator said, adding that no one was hurt.

(Source: Reuters)

"The test vehicle was changing lane when it collided with a lorry at low speed," the Land Transport Authority said in a Facebook post.

"The Land Transport Authority and the Police are investigating the cause of the incident."

nuTonomy, which is developing and testing the technology, said the car was operating with two engineers onboard and traveling slowly.

The driverless car company, which was founded by researchers from MIT, has recently paired up with Uber-rival Grab in Singapore to offer some users of the ride-hailing service a take a trip in a nuTonomy autonomous vehicle on a quiet road.

Countries around the world are encouraging the development of autonomous technologies, and Singapore, with its limited land and workforce, is hoping driverless vehicles will encourage its residents to use more shared vehicles and public transport.

Singapore's testing of the technology is being closely watched as tech firms and automakers race to build self-drive cars and develop new business plans for what is expected to be a long-term makeover of personal transport.

Four different groups are testing driverless cars in a western Singapore district. The test routes open to participants was doubled to 12 km last month.