I was going to look at a section on Uber as the first U.S. giant multinational online transportation network company, intending to launch the first self-driving cars in history, but to my surprise, I found that record seems to have switched hands. The record breaking tipoff today says it’s no longer Uber, but a small autonomous company known as, MIT Spinout NuTonomy, who has just done so.

NuTonomy is a three-year-old company that spanned out of MIT. It is also a far lower-profile company, compared to Uber, working on the other side of the world, Singapore.

Earlier this week, reports had had it that, by the end of August; Uber will conduct a trial on self-driving for free for the public, but today, (August 25), NuTonomy’s self-driving taxis available to the public, have already started picking up passengers in Singapore, running the maiden trial in a small business district in Singapore called one-north, a space dominated by tech firms and biotechnology companies, ibtimes.co.uk, says.

Here are a few things the NuTonomy first self-driving free car trial tends to achieve by the end of today:

• A collective feedback from the riders on the cars performance in-real-world setting.
• Collection and evaluation of valuable data related to software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, vehicle booking process, and overall passenger experience which can help the NuTonomy company get prepared for a full-fledged launch.
• Based on collected feedback and performance efficiency, NuTonomy intends full-fledged fleet operations from 2018.
• The pilot scheme just like Uber’s runs a human backup driver and co-pilot on board for this trial, but that’s as far as feedback can improve in the nearest future.

Quite frankly, I think Uber is the Giant in this self-driving car technology game, given that they beat even Google in master minding protocols to launch self-driving cars this soon, but I equally think a huge milestone in history has been covered by MIT Spinout NuTonomy, who not only is a smaller company but surmounted all obstacles to become the first to actually launch Self-Driving Cars in history. This is an development, and we only need to be on a constant lookout for what both companies; Uber & NuTonomy have to offer in the nearest future, because as far as I am concerned, a race has just begun and there can only be one winner, so let’s sit tight and await who this tech savvie winner is going to be!