Although Uber may soon be the first company to launch a self-driving car service in the United States, it won't be the first in the world. That honor went Thursday to nuTonomy, a Massachusetts-based company that has now officially rolled out what many analysts say will transform the future of transportation and the economy. NuTonomy's six self-driving cars are being tested in Singapore's one-north business district, a roughly 500-acre hub the city-state built for science and technology companies. Using nuTonomy's app, members of the public will be able to request a free ride in a specially modified electric vehicle manufactured by Renault or Mitsubishi. Like Uber, nuTonomy said it will have a human accompanying the rider to make sure everything works smoothly.

The world's first-ever self-driving taxis hit the roads in Singapore on Thursday in a limited public trial. The "robo-taxi" service is taking place in a hi-tech business district in the western part of the country, where developer nuTonomy has been conducting daily autonomous vehicle testing since April. The company said that it had invited select Singapore residents to use its ride-hailing smartphone app to book a free ride in a nuTonomy self-driving car that employs the company's sophisticated software. The company's plan is to get feedback ahead of a planned launch of the service in Singapore in 2018. "Throughout the trial, nuTonomy will collect and evaluate valuable data related to software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the vehicle booking process, and the overall passenger experience," the company said in a statement. The rides will be provided in a Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle, specially configured by nuTonomy for autonomous driving.

Samsung is joining the growing market of voice-assisted speakers that is currently being dominated by Amazon Echo. For its entry to this market, the South Korea company is designing a Bluetooth-connected speaker that has its own microphone for quick and easy detection of voice commands. The Galaxy Note 7 maker has already submitted documents about its upcoming speaker to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, so it won't come as a surprise when the electronics giant announces the device and its release date soon. According to VentureBeat, included in the documents Samsung sent to the independent government agency on Monday are a manual and photos of the speaker that is dubbed as "Scoop." In addition, the site noted that Samsung's speaker is designed to be mobile and easy to carry around, since it comes with a strap -- a portability feature that is not that different from Amazon's Tap.

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The world's first self-driving taxis will be picking up passengers in Singapore starting Thursday. Select members of the public will be able to hail a free ride through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup. While multiple companies, including Google and Volvo, have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for several years, nuTonomy says it will be the first to offer rides to the public. It will beat ride-hailing service Uber, which plans to offer rides in autonomous cars in Pittsburgh, by a few weeks. The service will start small -- six cars now, growing to a dozen by the end of the year.

Uber announced that it will start self-driving trials in Pittsburgh later this month, but it was beat to the punch by a much less well-known company. Starting today, nuTonomy will offer rides to Singapore residents in specially equipped Mitsubishi i-MiEV or Renault Zoe electric vehicles. As with Uber, passengers won't be alone with a robotic driver like Silicon Valley's hapless Jared. A nuTonomy engineer will be along to monitor the vehicle, and a safety driver will "assume control if needed to ensure passenger comfort and safety," the company wrote. The rides will be free to start with, and the company will stick to an area called "One-North" for the tests.

It heralds a new dawn in transportation – the world's first self-driving taxis have begun picking up passengers. Members of the public in Singapore are able to hail the autonomous vehicles using their smartphones. The service is being provided by start-up nuTonomy, which has pipped car makers like Ford and Volvo along with internet giant Google and ride-hailing service Uber to provide the robotic cars. The world's first self-driving taxis have begun picking up passengers in Singapore (pictured). Traffic during rush-hour is an ever-growing issue for commuters.

NuTonomy is offering rides in its self-driving taxis to select residents of Singapore from Thursday, ahead of a commercial launch of the service in 2018. The trials on the smartphone app-based service follows an agreement earlier this month between NuTonomy, a startup set up by two former MIT experts in the areas of robotics and intelligent vehicle technology, and Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) to begin trials of an autonomous mobility-on-demand transportation service. The NuTonomy trial comes ahead of similar tests planned by Uber Technologies later this month on the streets of Pittsburgh in the U.S. NuTonomy said its new "robo-taxi" service, which will include specially configured Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicles, will run on an on-going basis within Singapore's one-north business district, where the company has been conducting daily autonomous vehicle testing since April. You can see a video of the trial here. The vehicles will be fully autonomous but an engineer from the company will ride in the vehicle both to monitor its performance and to also take over control if required at some point for safety or other reasons.

A man has used thought alone to control nanorobots inside a living creature for the first time. The technology released a drug inside cockroaches in response to the man's brain activity – a technique that may be useful for treating brain disorders such as schizophrenia and ADHD. Getting drugs to where they need to be exactly when you want them is a challenge. Most drugs diffuse through the blood stream over time – and you're stuck with the side effects until the drug wears off. Now, a team at the Interdisciplinary Center, in Herzliya, and Bar Ilan University, in Ramat Gan, both in Israel, have developed a system that allows precise control over when a drug is active in the body.