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To be a pedestrian in London is to have power. Tube blows? Bus delays? Don’t be afraid – you can probably walk there faster anyway. And traffic? Make it stop for you. There are no walking laws here.
Against this backdrop of people taking to the road whenever they feel like it, Waymo plans to launch a fully autonomous robotaxi this year.
“We approach London with the right amount of humility and respect,” Waymo chief product officer Saswat Panigrahi told the audience at SXSW London.
On several occasions during the Tech Fest, I caught a glimpse of a company Jaguar I-Pace Vehicles move slowly along the street. Waymo employees have begun traveling around the city in Waymo’s 100 vehicles, all of which remain under the supervision of a human driver for now.
The testing in the British capital comes before Waymo opens to the public by the end of 2026. And it’s not alone. Wayve, one of the UK’s most valuable AI startups, also trialled its technology on London’s roads. It plans to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service in London this year in partnership with Uber before expanding to Tokyo and the United States.
The two companies rely on different technologies: Waymo uses a classic robotic approach based on 3D mapping combined with sensors and lidar, while Wayve uses an AI engine that leverages end-to-end neural networks trained on large-scale data. But for Londoners, both options will offer a completely new experience of the city’s well-established transport network. Both companies will also have to face many of the same unique challenges facing London.
London roads: “the most difficult cases”
When I finally get to try Waymo in London, it won’t be my first time. I’ve been in one of the cars before on a mission to go get tacos in the Mission District in San Francisco. On that occasion, as I was struggling to find a place to park, the Waymo circled the area several times before letting me out.
London is not a grid-based city, but instead collects complex one-way systems in its labyrinthine medieval streets. If the car misses its chance to stop, the issue can be much more difficult to remedy. It’s like driving through Chinatown in San Francisco, but all the time, Waymo spokesman Ethan Teicher told me in an interview at the company’s booth at SXSW in London.
Waymos are ready for rain.
Wayve’s vice president of business and operations, Katie Fisher, speaking at SXSW London, said working in the city meant “solving the toughest cases.” She added that it has 20 times the amount of construction going on in San Francisco, and 10 times the number of pedestrians at risk, and that’s not just pedestrians.
Unlike Waymo, which is already available in cities across the US, London is Wayve’s first self-driving taxi market, so it’s learning all its lessons here before it goes anywhere else. But it has been testing its vehicles on British roads since 2019.
Meanwhile, Waymo has only been testing in London since the end of last year, but will use the experience it has gained over more than 20 million trips to guide its expansion into London. This, in turn, will provide lessons to help the company venture elsewhere.
London (mostly) welcomes its robo-taxi overlords
To the extent that any self-driving car company can operate in any given city, it will need policymakers and regulators on its side. In the US, most states and even cities have their own operating standards, which explains the phased rollout.
The same is not true in the UK. “The government has been incredibly supportive of us in launching and deploying our technology right now,” Fisher said. She added that the UK is the first country to have a national strategy to put self-driving vehicles on the road, making it easier for companies like Wayve.
Teicher said London was a natural first choice for Waymo in Europe. It’s a global city with a huge potential customer base of residents and visitors who come from other countries and may be trying Waymo in the British capital for the first time. “The city has some very clear goals regarding safety and transportation, and we believe this technology helps achieve a lot of those goals,” he added.
Waymo had a booth at this year’s SXSW London to introduce the vehicles to the city.
London also wants to help people find last-mile solutions, which Waymo is ideal for, Teicher said. “We already know that Londoners think about transport in a step-by-step manner,” he said, adding that the company is happy to contribute another safe, accessible, clean and convenient option to London’s existing transport ecosystem.
This ecosystem includes distinct modes of transportation, which include the subway system, red Routemaster buses, and black taxis. The latter may be less welcoming to Waymo and Wayve than local politicians.
When Uber first arrived in the city, London’s black cab drivers – who had to pass a test known as… KnowledgeWhere they proved Their encyclopedic understanding of the streets of London — Widely protested. last year, The Guardian It reported that there had been a decline in the number of black cab drivers registered with TfL from 22,810 in 2013-14 to 14,470 in 2023-24.
I asked Teicher if Waymo was prepared for potential backlash from taxi drivers registered in the city. “They are consummate professionals,” he said. “We have great respect for what they do, and what they mean to the city, and we don’t see ourselves replacing them anytime soon.”
He added that the company will be part of an ecosystem of worthy vehicles upon launch. “We won’t be the entire ecosystem.”
He also welcomes competition from Uber and Wayve. He added: “It pushes us all to do what we can to be better, to learn from each other, and ultimately it’s a win for Londoners.”
