Driverless taxis from Waymo will be available for hire on London’s roads next year, the US company has announced.
The UK capital will become the first European city to have an autonomous taxi service of the kind now familiar in San Francisco and four other US cities using Waymo’s technology.
Waymo said its cars were now on their way to London and would start driving on the capital’s streets in the coming weeks with “trained human specialists”, or safety drivers, behind the wheel.
The company – originally formed as a spin-off from Google’s self-driving car programme and part of the same parent group, Alphabet – said it would scale up operations and work closely with the Department for Transport and Transport for London to obtain the necessary permissions to offer fully autonomous rides in 2026.
Uber and the UK tech company Wayve have also announced their own plans to trial their driverless taxis in the capital next year, after the British government said it would accelerate rules allowing public trials to take place before legislation enabling self-driving vehicles passes in full.
The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: “I’m delighted that Waymo intends to bring their services to London next year, under our proposed piloting scheme.
“Boosting the AV sector will increase accessible transport options alongside bringing jobs, investment and opportunities to the UK. Cutting-edge investment like this will help us deliver our mission to be world leaders in new technology and spearhead national renewal.”
A fuller rollout of self-driving taxis is expected in the UK after the Automated Vehicles Act fully takes effect in late 2027.
Waymo already has ties to Britain after opening its first European engineering hub in Oxford in 2019. It is also launching services in Tokyo using Jaguar Land Rover electric vehicles, its only other current venture outside the US.
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The US company’s co-chief executive Tekedra Mawakana said the technology was “making roads safer and transportation more accessible”, adding: “We’ve demonstrated how to responsibly scale fully autonomous ride-hailing, and we can’t wait to expand the benefits of our technology to the United Kingdom.”
Waymo launched its autonomous taxis in 2020 and now says it has taken more than 10 million passengers in the US.
Despite some alarming incidents, Waymo said the data showed that cars driven by humans were involved in incidents that injured pedestrians 12 times more often than its autonomous vehicles.