Nissan said Tuesday it would begin field tests for driverless "robot taxis" early next year as its rivals around the world step up self-driving technologies.

The car giant and Japanese mobile game company DeNA have jointly developed the new driverless vehicle services, dubbed Easy Ride.

They plan to carry out the test with public participation for two weeks in March in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, using two electric autonomous vehicles based on its Leaf, a Nissan spokesman said, with an aim of rolling out the service by 2020.

Under their plan, customers can use a mobile app to call the robo-vehicle, set the required destination and pay the fare.