In a quiet street in northern Singapore, a car plies the road like any other – except it is a left-hand drive from China and the person in the driver’s seat has been trained to keep his hands off the wheel and his foot off the pedals unless an emergency arises.

Eventually, there will be no need for a safety officer or any human behind the wheel at all – mirroring the autonomous vehicles (AVs) already operating in cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

For now, Singapore is in the early stages of rolling out AVs, specifically robotaxis, to the public.

Jeffrey Siow, the acting transport minister, said last September that the country aimed to have around 100 to 150 of these vehicles on the road by the end of this year.

Major ride-hailing companies Grab and ComfortDelGro were given the green light to collaborate with leading Chinese AV manufacturers WeRide and Pony.ai, respectively, to test and deploy shuttle taxi services on public roads in Punggol.

Chinese AV companies are industry leaders, experts say, and are keen to show that their vehicles can operate in international markets – despite profitability concerns, as most are still in the start-up phase and rely heavily on investments.