Uber’s London driverless cab trial scheduled for next spring

Autonomous vehicles will navigate the city’s streets backed by Wayve technology

Life

Uber will launch a trial of driverless cabs in London next spring. The initiative will see autonomous vehicles without human safety drivers driving through city streets. The ride-hailing giant will partner with Wayve, a UK-based AI company that has been testing its autonomous driving technology in London under current regulations.

This development follows recent changes in UK legislation regarding driverless cars. Initially planned for 2026, the rollout was later pushed back to the end of 2027. However, the government has now introduced an accelerated framework to allow earlier rollout of small-scale autonomous commercial services such as bus and cab transport.

The Department for Transport predicts that the autonomous vehicle industry could create 38,000 jobs and contribute £42 billion to the British economy by 2035. However, concerns have been raised about the potential social impacts of driverless cars and cabs, including job displacement, underscoring the need for comprehensive considerations.

Uber launched a robot taxi service in Austin, Texas, in March and demonstrated that its driverless vehicles are capable of driving for extended periods of time, up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week. Customers have the choice to opt for a robotic cab if one is available, at no additional cost. Tesla plans to launch a competing service in the same city in June.

Fully autonomous cars have already traveled millions of miles on public roads in several countries, including China, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. Ongoing research is investigating whether they are safer than human-driven vehicles. Studies based on data from the US suggest that automated vehicles are less likely to cause accidents than human drivers. Nevertheless, incidents involving robot cabs have occurred in the countries where they operate, ranging from road collisions to entrapment of passengers. A robot taxi service in San Francisco was discontinued because of a series of malfunctions.

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