Waymo plans to begin giving paid robotaxi rides in London next year, with no human backup driver, as the Alphabet unit seeks to establish itself as the global leader in autonomous driving.
The Mountain View, California-based company will begin operating a fleet of electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs in the British capital, sometime in 2026, that commuters can hail via the Waymo app. Moove.io, an African mobility fintech company, will handle fleet maintenance and service in London, just as it does in Phoenix and, soon, Miami, Waymo said today.
The news comes as the robotaxi leader prepares to take its service beyond Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta to Miami, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Denver, Nashville and New York. Waymo, which provides hundreds of thousands of paid rides weekly, has been testing in Tokyo as well, but hasn’t yet announced a launch date.
In a blog post, co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana emphasized Waymo’s safety record, based on years of U.S. road tests and service. The company says its robotaxis are involved in “five times fewer injury-causing” accidents and far fewer collisions with pedestrians resulting in injuries compared to human drivers. “We’ve demonstrated how to responsibly scale fully autonomous ride-hailing,” she said.
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Waymo is at an inflection point, looking to dramatically scale up its service after 16 years of technical development. Its London expansion could also be a big development for Moove. Based in Lagos, Nigeria, it operates 36,000 vehicles in ridehail services in 19 cities around the world. The company, partly owned by Uber, began by providing vehicles to drivers who finance them with revenue from rides. Now it wants to build one of the world’s largest rideshare fleets–including robotaxis. Bloomberg reported in July that Moove was raising $1.2 billion in part to buy a Waymo fleet to expand operations in the U.S.
“We’re excited by a future where Waymo’s safe and reliable autonomous technology is available in London, transforming how the capital moves,” Ladi Delano, Moove’s cofounder and co-CEO, said by email. “This partnership represents a major step forward for urban mobility, bringing world-class innovation to one of the world’s greatest cities.”
Waymo’s London launch isn’t entirely surprising. Last month, media reports said the company had begun hiring local staff there. In June, the U.K. government gave approval to testing autonomous vehicles without safety drivers. Wayve, a London-based Waymo competitor, is testing its driverless vehicles there in a partnership with Uber.
