Officially dubbed Hackney carriages, London's black cabs are piloted by a sterling breed of polymaths. In fact, scientists say cabbies’ knowledge of London’s tangled web of 25,000 streets gives them bigger brains.

Luckily there’s room in these nippy black leviathans -- as much a part of London as fish and chips, Buckingham Palace and Australian bar staff -- to accommodate five passengers and their suitcases, with enough space left over for the driver’s enlarged hippo campus.

With a mighty V8 engine under the hood, it’s no wonder that New York cabbies drive their Crown Vics like they’re being pursued by tax collectors. Not for much longer though.

The Yellow Cabs don't so much guzzle gas as binge-drink it, so they’re being replaced by eco-friendly Nissans. They’ll still be as yellow as the cheese on a Manhattan deli’s ham and Swiss, but will they keep that strange New York cab smell?

Starved of car imports, resourceful Cubans have cannibalized washing machines to keep their vintage Buicks and Cadillacs living as long as Fidel Castro.

Most of these taxis are unofficial and liable to overcharge, but unless you’re a fan of cola, rum and lime, ain’t nothing libre in Cuba these days.

Another survivor, the Ambassador has been rolling off production lines and into taxi ranks since 1948. Resistant to streamlining, the Amby’s vintage curves, turban-friendly headroom and radio permanently tuned to atrocious Hindi pop have endeared it to generations of Indian passengers.

Auto-rickshaws aren’t unique to Bangkok and weren’t invented here, but like smiles, noxious energy drinks and Ping-Pong tricks, Thailand claims them as its own.

Rivalry from safer four-wheel cabs has threatened their trade, but like cockroaches, tuk-tuks would probably survive a nuclear Armageddon.

If Germany’s speed unlimited autobahns aren’t fast enough, you can hire a souped-up BMW taxi to rocket you around the country’s Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit.

You’ll be charged a small fortune for this and you’ll end up almost exactly where you started, but there the similarity to other taxis ends.

Color-coded in primary reds, greens and blues, Hong Kong’s boxy Toyota Crown Comfort taxis have a reassuring Toy Town feel, with prices to match.

Drivers will go anywhere for a quick dollar, even in a typhoon. They won’t go to the expat enclave of Discovery Bay though, but who can blame them?

Most major cities have novelty boats, helicopters or luxury car taxis, but somehow being picked up by a Porsche makes more sense in Moscow where oligarchs have money to burn and are apparently willing to pay a US$95 flag-fall.

There’s nothing iconic about Shanghai’s humdrum fleet of Volkswagen Jettas and it’s never clear if the Perspex screen around the driver is to keep phlegm in or out.

But to zip in a cab over the city’s elevated neon expressways is to truly experience modern Shanghai: cheap, fast and just a little bit dirty.

Everyone likes VW Beetles, so we’ve stuck Mexico’s iconic vochos in at number 10. There isn’t much to love about these pollution-belching bugs though.

Not unless you enjoy being squeezed into a tiny seat and -- if you risk an unlicensed cab -- being robbed at knife-point.