The Israeli AI company Autobrains announced a collaboration with Uber and Nvidia to create Europe's first autonomous commercial ride-hailing network, which will be operating in Munich in the near future, pending regulatory approval.
"We created a unique system for autonomous driving through agentic artificial intelligence, which breaks down the reasoning into small tasks and makes it easier to process," Igal Raichelgauz, Autobrains founder and CEO, told The Jerusalem Post.
He told the Post that the system also relies on developments from the defense sector, using satellite imagery, cameras, and drone connectivity to improve its self-driving capabilities.
The collaboration between the Israeli company, Uber, and Nvidia brings, according to their statements, the "three essential layers for scalable robotaxi deployment": Software developed for autonomous driving, a platform like Uber that already offers ride-hailing services, and Nvidia's hardware.
The company, according to Raichelgauz, now aims to complete enough test drives to provide statistics that are safer by a landslide compared to human rides, with the drives conducted under human supervision, including during the system's initial launch.
Convincing people to hop in a driverless taxi
When asked how the company aims to earn enough trust for people, especially older generations, to get into autonomous taxis, Raichelgauz explained that the system is designed to explain everything it's doing out loud to instill confidence in its passengers.
"The first experience when you drive in robotics is really kind of, you know, surprising. There is someone in the driving seat, but he is not driving. And the car speaks to you, using local mannerisms and slang that was also programmed into the AI system," he said.
"We also believe that, when we manage to launch the product without the need of a physical person in the driver's seat, then people will start trusting the service just because it's cheaper than the one that uses actual drivers," he added.
According to Autobrains, the program will enable automakers to enter the self-driving sector by integrating their vehicles into the system and testing them in real-world environments such as Munich's ride-hailing ecosystem.
Will it come to Israel?
When asked about the possibility of using this technology in Israel, Raichelgauz said that many potential partners approached the company after the Munich announcement and that the possibility was being discussed internally.
"We hope to be able to apply our technology in Israel, maybe even transform Israel into the first nation to have the system working nation-wide," he said, but added that it was still in the early stages and that the main priority was expanding into the European sector.
For the moment, two key milestones were reached in Israel that would allow autonomous taxis to be implemented: the legalization of ride-sharing apps and of self-driving cars.
The Knesset’s Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs approved a bill back in January that would allow Uber, Lyft, and other shared-ride apps to operate in the country.
Additionally, Tesla announced in February that it would begin supervised autonomous driving trials in Israel after receiving government approval from the Transportation Ministry.