Total Recall's Johnny Cabs are a step closer to becoming a reality as self-driving taxis are on their way to Japan, according to Digital Spy.

Robot Taxi will begin offering driverless rides to around 50 people in the Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo during a trial period, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The cabs will be charged with ferrying two people at a time on two-mile journeys, with a human driver on standby in case of an emergency.

Robot Taxi is aiming to deploy its cars by 2020 and has a number of applications in mind, from taking elderly people to the shops, to providing public transport in areas where there are no trains and buses.

US taxi giant Uber is also trialling self-driving cabs, so it might not be too long before we're hitching a ride in a fully-autonomous vehicle.