Singapore Becomes The World’s First Country To Get Driverless Taxis On Its Streets

Singapore became the first city/country to get driverless cars on to its roads, beating tech giant Uber who has been developing the technology for a couple of years now. But before you get ahead of yourselves, Singapore is currently only in the trial stage but passengers do get to ride in the car and for free.

Select members of the public can hail free rides through their smartphone to get a ride from one of the fleet of driverless cars operated by nuTonomy, an independent vehicle software startup. The company is using Renault and Mitsubishi electric vehicles that have been equipped with the company’s software and cameras. Currently nuTonomy is using six cars for the trial and are driving them in a selected part of town. Since the cars are only being tested, there is a driver sat in the passenger seat to ensure maximum safety.

So why Singapore, you’re probably wondering?

Singapore is already heavily dependent on taxis and most people hail cabs as its cheaper than owning a car. It’s also a very organised and disciplined city as is the traffic, which makes Singapore the perfect starting point for driverless cars. nuTonomy hopes to have a complete self-driving fleet in Singapore by 2018.