Waymo's self-driving taxis set to arrive in London next year

Global autonomous taxi company Waymo has announced it could be bringing its fleet of vehicles to the streets of London next year, making it the first European city to have driverless taxis on its roads.

The fully autonomous ride-hailing service – where there is no human sat behind the wheel – will work alongside the capital’s network of public transport infrastructure.

An autonomous vehicle is a self-driving car that uses sensors, cameras, and artificial intelligence to navigate and operate without human input.

Users will be able to access the ride-hailing service through the Waymo app – which is already available to people living in San Francisco and Tokyo.

Although the tech company is moving forward with its plans, it will be working close with its fleet operations partner Moove to secure the necessary permissions to operate in the capital.

This will include approval from both the Department for Transport (DfT) and Transport for London (TfL).

According to Waymo, its California service has already driven over 100m fully autonomous miles on public roads.

This equates to more than 10m paid rides by US citizens.

Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said: “We’re thrilled to bring the reliability, safety and magic of Waymo to Londoners.

“Waymo is making roads safer and transportation more accessible where we operate. 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.”

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Waymo has already announced that they will be partnering with Jaguar Land Rover, as the taxis will be all-electric I-PACEs outfitted with the Waymo Driver technology.

In response to the announcement, Secretary of State for Transport 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 that delivers real change in our communities.”

Waymo has stated that they are aiming to help London achieve its ambitious targets for reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on the city’s roads through its technology.

James Gibson, executive director of Road Safety GB, said: “Autonomous vehicles, such as Waymo, hold the potential to significantly improve road safety because, quite simply, the human driver is removed.

“The data shows that the Waymo vehicles have performed far safer compared to human drivers across more than 100m autonomous miles.

“Rolling out autonomous vehicles in a progressive, yet measured way will be the best approach. The road safety profession and wider society should embrace it. It could lead to a future that our vision zero aspirations envision.”

Image credit: Waymo