Uber and Wayve open London's first robotaxi service with 15 cars and safety drivers at the wheel
Passengers in London who book an UberX, Uber Comfort or Uber Electric trip can now be matched with a Ford Mustang Mach-E running Wayve's software, with a licensed safety driver in the front seat. Uber holds a licence for 15 autonomous cars in the city, the first such service in the United Kingdom. The cars work from cameras and radar rather than lidar, and fares match standard rates.
Artificial Intelligence··Morning
How a London passenger gets matched with a Wayve car
Uber has started matching passengers in London with autonomous cars run by the British company Wayve. Customers who request an UberX, Uber Comfort or Uber Electric ride can be paired with a Ford Mustang Mach-E carrying Wayve's software; the option surfaces in the app only after a booking, when one of the cars is nearby, and riders get a notification beforehand in case they prefer a conventional vehicle. Pricing matches a standard UberX, Uber Electric or Uber Comfort journey, and no tipping prompt appears even though a person sits in the front seat, though tipping stays available through the Trip History page. The cars work from cameras and radar rather than lidar, and Uber says riders face no geofence. Transport for London licenses the safety drivers who sit in the front seat without controlling the car, and Uber says they are phased out over time. Uber already runs autonomous fleets in Dallas, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Austin, with Los Angeles and the Bay Area planned and Nissan cars promised in Tokyo.[1], [3]
The licence, the safety driver and one intervention
Uber holds a licence for 15 autonomous vehicles in London, the first robotaxi service in the United Kingdom, and each car carries a safety driver behind the wheel ready to take control. Uber received that London licence last month, and it requires a supervisor present at all times; Uber says the drivers are phased out over several years, though its global head of autonomous mobility and delivery, Sarfraz Maredia, said human drivers stay on Uber London for a long time to come. A BBC reporter, the first British journalist to hail one as a customer, got a 30-second safety briefing and then rode through central London, past a demonstration outside parliament and through traffic lights and roadworks; at a mini roundabout the car complied when a cyclist waved it forward. The driver did take the wheel once, as the rear doors of a parked van appeared to swing open and the car braked sharply, and Wayve said afterwards that the intervention was the driver's decision. Uber says more than 100,000 customers in London told an in-app survey they would choose an autonomous taxi.[2], [3]
Regulators take their time while Waymo and Baidu queue up
The Department for Transport and Transport for London oversee the process and have drawn criticism for moving slowly. A department spokesperson said it is working towards a framework for self-driving cars on the roads in 2027 without naming a date, and that such services arrive subject to safety testing, regulatory approval and local consent. Christina Calderator, director of transport strategy and policy at Transport for London, said the authority is holding up no decision and is taking time to get it right. David McMullen, senior organiser at the GMB union, called the rollout premature until a plan protects drivers. Waymo, owned by Alphabet, has run mapping cars with safety drivers and staff on London streets for months without carrying the public, does not intend a service with a person at the wheel, and said it launches in London before the end of the year; Baidu is competing for the same market. Wayve was founded in 2017 by two Cambridge machine learning doctoral students and calls its approach AV2.0: a single learned driver in place of hand-engineered stacks and high-definition maps. Its chief executive, Alex Kendall, called the work this generation's space race. The fleet starts with Ford Mustang Mach-Es, the Nissan Leaf is named as the next vehicle, and Otto Car handles servicing.[2], [1]
