Singapore has launched the world's first self-driving taxis which have started picking up passengers on the busy streets of One-North district.

Earlier this year, nuTonomy, a company from the United States, sought permission from the Singaporean government to test its self-driving cars in a small district called One-North. The company recently signed an agreement with the Singapore Land Transit Authority, making nuTonomy the country's partner in research and design.

nuTonomy cars have been undergoing trials in the city-state since then. On Aug 25, the cars started picking and dropping off passengers.

Given that nuTonomy is not a car manufacturer, the vehicles used do not have futuristic designs. The company is using an electric Mitsubishi i-MiEv and a small Renault, equipped its technology and camera. Each car has a complex system of lasers that functions as radars to monitor their surroundings.

For now, the service is limited to 10 select group of people. Although the cars are driving themselves, a driver is present to monitor the performance just in case something goes wrong. Eventually, nuTonomy hopes to open the trial to more people before they make the service commercially available by 2018.

Among the invited participants was Entrepreneur Edward Tiong. His apprehension on the safety of the car went away after he tried the service. "I've been following the technology for a while, so I was quite excited to try it out," Tiong, 26, said.

Karl Iagnemma, the CEO of nuTonomy, said that the purpose of the trial is to gather technical data and allow the software to evaluate performance and vehicle routing efficiency. But more importantly, it would allow the company to find out if the passengers enjoyed their ride. He added that since the cars utilize robotic technology, there is a need to further identify areas for improvements to perfect the technology.

Dough Parker, a nuTonomy executive, said during an interview that "This is really a moment in history that's going to change how cities are built, how we really look at our surroundings."