Singapore has become the first nation in the world to launch a self-driving taxi service.
The first driverless vehicles built by tech startup nuTonomy have hit the road and are being tested in the ‘One North’ district.
It has started with a fleet of just six cars, which it hopes to double by the end of the year.
It plans to have a fully self-driving taxi fleet in Singapore within two years.
The service is starting small; it is only running within a 2.5-square-mile business and residential district with designated pickup and drop-off points.
It is an invite-only service at the moment, but all rides are free.
The company is using Renault Zoe and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electrics cars which each have a standby driver to take over controls if needed, while a researcher sits in the back analysing the onboard computer systems.
nuTonomy also has plans to test driverless taxi services in other Asian cities, the US and Europe.
Doug Parker, nuTonomy’s chief operating officer, said the autonomous taxi service could eventually lead to reducing the number of cars on Singapore’s roads from 900,000 to just 300,000.
"When you are able to take that many cars off the road, it creates a lot of possibilities. You can create smaller roads, you can create much smaller car parks. I think it will change how people interact with the city going forward," Parker said.
