UBER AND WAYVE LAUNCH LONDON'S FIRST SELF-DRIVING TAXI SERVICE

Londoners can now hail self-driving taxis for the first time after autonomous vehicles developed by British tech firm Wayve were integrated into the Uber app on Thursday, 3 September.

Users across the city can be matched with a driverless Ford Mustang Mach-E, though the chances are currently slim with only 15 vehicles licensed out of the capital's 100,000 Ubers.

Transport for London awarded a private hire licence to the vehicles last month, but current regulations require a TfL-certified safety driver to sit in the front seat during this initial phase.

Passengers can unlock the doors and start the trip through the app before using a touchscreen to monitor progress, while the human supervisor remains ready to take over the controls.

Regulatory approval for fully driverless operations without a safety driver requires a separate process via the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and is considered unlikely this year.

Unlike competitors that rely on pre-programmed instructions or extensive sensor suites, Wayve's 'AV 2.0' system uses artificial intelligence to make decisions and apply learnings to unexpected situations.

Alex Kendall, the chief executive and co-founder of Wayve, highlighted the complexity of the local environment, stating he was proud to introduce the technology to "our home city and one of the most complex driving environments in the world."

Kendall noted that robotaxi services without a safety driver would eventually arrive, adding: “I don’t want to put a timeline on it, but we’re pushing as fast as we can.”

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander hailed the launch as "a major milestone for the future of transport in London," noting that it cements Wayve's status as a technology trailblazer.

Meanwhile, Sarfraz Maredia, the head of autonomous mobility at Uber, stated that the long-term benefit for consumers would be rides that are both safer and cheaper, though he admitted that: "today, nobody’s able to operate AVs cheaper than a traditional human-driven ride, so that’s going to take a while to prove."

Addressing concerns over livelihoods, Maredia emphasised that Uber envisions a hybrid network rather than a total replacement of staff, aiming for human drivers and autonomous vehicles to work side by side. However, worker representatives remain cautious.

David McMullen, a senior organiser at the GMB union, warned: “With hundreds of thousands of people employed to drive every day, we need to be really careful with the rollout of driverless cars unless we are prepared to see unprecedented levels of social and economic disruption.”

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