Driverless cars carrying paying passengers could be on London‘s roads within a couple of months, after self-driving firm Wayve confirmed it is ready to start offering trips booked through the Uber app.
The vehicles will be hailed in the same way as any normal Uber, with self-driving cars set to appear on the app’s X, Comfort and Electric options at the same fare as conventional minicabs. Uber has already begun letting users register their interest in being among the first to try the service. In the early stages, a human safety driver will sit behind the wheel, ready to take control while the technology is shown to be safe.
Kaity Fischer, who leads Wayve’s self-driving business, said the company was ready to go and was looking forward to launching in London in the next couple of months, adding the team could not wait to get the public into the vehicles. The cars use six cameras, radar and an AI-powered system to guide them through traffic and around obstacles, and the first London fleet will be made up of Ford Mustang Mach-E SUVs.
Wayve, founded in 2017 by two University of Cambridge PhD students, says London will be the first city in the world to use its technology for commercial journeys, before expanding to more than 10 cities globally with Uber, including Tokyo later this year. The firm is also working with carmakers including Nissan and Stellantis to put its systems into private vehicles.
Rival Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has also picked London as its first European city, having begun testing on the capital’s streets late last year with a safety driver on board as it seeks approval to run a service.
For drivers, this is the clearest signal yet that robotaxis are moving from trial to fare-paying reality on home turf. A safety driver in the seat softens the immediate impact, but the direction of travel is plain — and worth watching closely as the technology, and the regulation around it, develops.
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