‘Leicester Square, please guv’: Self-driving taxis cleared for London streets ‘later this summer’

Wayve Uber wins first minicab licence for autonomous cabs from TfL but vehicles will have a safety driver (at first)

The taxi app company Uber and the autonomous technology developer Wayve have been granted the first minicab licences in London allowing them to offer self-driving taxi rides to paying customers – but with a human safety driver in place, for now.

The companies said they would start trips in the UK “later this summer” before the full public launch.

The San Francisco-headquartered Uber and London-based Wayve are racing against the Google-owned Waymo and its Chinese equivalent Baidu’s Apollo Go to launch self-driving taxi services in London. Their progress is being watched closely because the British capital will be one of the first cities in the world to have American and Chinese tech firms operating on the same roads.

Uber and Wayve said more than 100,000 Londoners were on their waiting list for the self-driving taxis.

Transport for London (TfL), the capital’s licensing authority, granted 15 private hire vehicle licences to Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles equipped with Wayve’s artificial intelligence driving software, as well as surround cameras and radar. The companies said TfL had confirmed they reached the required safety standards.

A TfL-licensed private hire driver will sit in the driver’s seat during trips to intervene if necessary, although the software is expected to control the car.

The next step, of operating the taxis without a driver, will require Uber and Wayve to seek approval via a new process, known as an automated passenger services permit, with the government’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.

TfL said it would monitor the use of the vehicles, and was ready to intervene if passenger safety was compromised. A spokesperson said: “Safety is our top priority. Any new vehicle licensed to carry passengers on London’s roads must align with our Vision Zero goal of eliminating all deaths and serious injuries from collisions on London’s streets by 2041.”

Wayve, which was co-founded by the New Zealand-born Alex Kendall, has been testing its tech in London since 2018 with safety drivers. In previous demonstrations to the Guardian the car has navigated most of the obstacles of north London’s busy roads, although the safety driver was forced to intervene at one point.

Sarah Gates, Wayve’s vice-president for global affairs and assurance, said: “This licence is an important step towards giving Londoners the chance to experience autonomous driving technology.

“The responsible deployment of these vehicles will bring us safer, cleaner and quieter streets, and we’re proud to continue working alongside regulators, communities and the public as we take the next steps towards making autonomous rides a reality in the capital.”

The licence approval was not welcomed by minicab drivers, who fear the threat to their livelihood. Matthew Wright, a regional organiser for the GMB union, raised concerns about job losses, increased unemployment and liability for accidents, and said “extreme caution” was warranted from TfL.

“This is a worrying development for our private hire driver members,” he said. “We can’t go charging ahead with new technologies without considering the implications of autonomous vehicles on all parties.”

Driverless taxi services are already operating in several cities around the world, although mainly in the US and China, where most of the software developers are based. However, US companies are essentially blocked from China, and vice versa, meaning they have not had to compete directly.

Uber abandoned its own efforts to develop self-driving technology in 2020, but it is working with several partners around the world who are in turn using different systems. That includes the Chinese company WeRide, which is operating driverless taxis in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Wayve is also working with the Japanese manufacturer Nissan on integrating its tech in private cars.

The news came as Uber reported better than expected second-quarter gross bookings of $58.02bn (£43bn), but said earnings for the next quarter would fall below Wall Street forecasts.

The company also outlined ‌plans to spend more than $10bn on autonomous vehicles over the coming years, although it did not provide a specific ‌timeline.