Waymo, the US autonomous vehicle (AV) company, has announced that it will launching a pilot scheme of driverless taxis in London next year, and says the cars are already on their way to Britain. This would make London the first European city to offer Waymo taxis – the company has been running AV taxis in US cities such as San Francisco since 2020.

Uber and UK tech company Wayve will also be trialling driverless cabs in the capital next year.

But the Waymo ‘driverless’ taxis won’t be without a driver, having a “trained human specialist” on board ready to take over in case anything goes wrong. These are public trials, but once the Autonomous Vehicles Act comes into operation in late 2027, a full roll-out of driverless taxis in the UK is expected.

Naturally there is opposition from London’s black cabs. Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA), dismissed the Waymo taxis as “a fairground ride,” questioning their reliability and adding that there was no public demand for driverless cabs. Waymo countered that its taxis have a better safety record than those with drivers.

Jim Freeman, chair at the BMF said: “This is the first step on the commercial AV path which the BMF have been monitoring since at least 2017, expect the LTDA to be opposed to it. The public will be focused on price and convenience, as ever. As riders we still have qualms about systems, we all remember those Tesla’s which couldn’t ‘see’ bikes. As long as the AVs have to share road space with all other users and ‘drive’ accordingly, so be it. I’d still be expecting legal issues.”

Written by Peter Henshaw

Top image courtesy of Waymo