Wayve’s cars became bookable through the Uber app in London on Thursday, the first taxis for hire in the city that drive themselves. Riders summon one and unlock its doors from the app.
Fifteen vehicles have been licensed, against about 100,000 Uber users who have registered to ride in a driverless car — roughly the size of London’s entire private hire fleet. Anyone requesting one is unlikely to be matched straight away.
Wayve’s system is built on an AI model that learns to drive rather than the detailed mapping its rivals rely on. Waymo, owned by Google, and the Chinese company Baidu are both testing robotaxis in the same city.
On a test drive through Westminster with the Guardian this week, the car stopped in front of gates that other vehicles were trying to pass through, then pulled away again and re-parked. Alex Kendall, Wayve’s co-founder and chief executive, called that “quite human-like” and said the company had put considerable work into having the car park in spots other road users would find socially acceptable.
Transport for London licensed the modified Ford Mustangs in August on conditions that require a licensed driver in the front seat, ready to take the wheel. Removing that supervision needs a separate approval from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, not expected within the year. Uber launched Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service in Zagreb earlier this summer, supervised the same way; cars with nobody aboard already carry passengers in the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates.
The economics are not there yet. Sarfraz Maredia, who runs Uber’s driverless operations, said rides should over time be safer and cheaper, but that no operator can currently put a driverless vehicle on the road for less than a trip with someone at the wheel.