Wayve and Uber plan London robotaxi launch after UK speeds up autonomous vehicle rollout

TechCrunch

a day ago

U.K.-based autonomous vehicle technology company Wayve and Uber plan to launch a fully driverless robotaxi service in London in the coming years.
The news comes soon after the U.K.'s announcement of an accelerated framework for self-driving commercial pilots. U.K. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander confirmed Tuesday that the U.K. government would fast-track pilots to spring 2026, up from late 2027, to incentivize investment in autonomy in the country.
Wayve and Uber did not share many details of their upcoming launch, such as when exactly the companies would begin trials and service, with how many vehicles, or via which vehicle manufacturer partner or partners. Wayve said in April that its tech would be headed to Nissan vehicles.
The announcement follows Uber's strategic investment into Wayve in 2024 that promised to see the startup's AI integrated into consumer vehicles that will one day operate on Uber's platform.
A Wayve spokesperson told TechCrunch the companies would start in the U.K. capital and scale out to greater London and beyond from there. First, every company involved in launching a robotaxi service would need to prove relevant safety cases to regulators.
'We have a partner ecosystem for bringing a service to market,' Sarah Gates, Wayve's director of public policy, told TechCrunch. 'Wayve provides driving intelligence integrated into a base vehicle provided by a vehicle manufacturer, and then we would have a fleet operator, and Uber would operate the service. So each part of that supply chain would need to prove safety and responsible deployment for what they're responsible for.'
In Wayve's case, the company needs to prove the safety of the system and how it drives within its operational design domain. Uber would have separate commitments around operating a passenger service responsibly and having things like customer service in place.
'This is a defining moment for U.K. autonomy,' Alex Kendall, Wayve's CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. 'With Uber and our global OEM partner, we're preparing to put our AI Driver technology into real service on the streets of London, delivering on our AV2.0 vision for scalable autonomy. Our Embodied AI learns to drive anywhere, in any vehicle, and this trial brings us closer to bringing safe and intelligent driving to everyday rides across the UK and beyond.'
Wayve recently published a blog detailing the initial findings from its 'AI-500 Roadshow,' a project to visit 500 cities using a single AI model by the end of 2025. So far, the startup has hit 90 cities in 90 days, spanning Asia, Europe, and North America. The demonstration is designed to prove that Wayve's technology can operate anywhere it's placed, rather than relying first on mapping a region.
That's relevant data to a company like Uber, which operates globally and has been doing deals with almost every AV company to scale its autonomous capabilities fast.
'Uber has got one of the largest mobility networks globally, so the fact that our AI can serve as their global network is a big reason why this partnership and this [driverless] trialing is so important,' Tilly Pielichaty, a Wayve spokesperson, told TechCrunch. 'We are starting in the U.K., but the ambition is to take it everywhere.'