Alphabet-Google’s daughter company, Waymo, plans to introduce its robotaxi operations in London next year. This is in response to plans by the British government to allow commercial pilot projects with autonomous vehicles from 2026. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “delighted” by the announcement.
For Waymo, this will be its second international expansion, after Tokyo, and its first operations in Europe. Waymo will start testing in the coming months with a small fleet of vehicles with safety drivers in a 259 km² area of London.
Already more than 10 million paid rides in the US
In the US, Waymo robotaxis are already operating in five cities. In San Francisco, for example, the company has a fleet of 800 vehicles. Other US cities where it already offers these services include Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta. In the latter two cities, it operates in partnership with Uber. The service will soon also be offered in Denver, Miami, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
According to Waymo, a company owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, it has already completed more than 10 million paid rides.
EU lags behind
But Waymo isn’t the only company looking to launch autonomous taxi services in London. In June, ride-hailing platform Uber announced plans to launch similar services in the capital, in partnership with British start-up Wayve, which specializes in AI systems for autonomous vehicles. The cars will initially have a human in the driver’s seat who can take over control of the vehicle in an emergency, but will transition to being fully driverless.
Chinese internet giant Baidu and American ride-sharing app Lyft have also presented plans for robotaxis in the UK next year. The UK passed the Automated Vehicles Act in 2024 to accelerate the development of these services. Compared to the US and China, autonomous taxi transport in Europe is still in its infancy.
Collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover
Waymo has been conducting tests on public roads in Tokyo since April in collaboration with Japanese taxi platform GO and taxi company Nihon Kotsu. No commercial launch has been announced for Japan yet.
In Tokyo and the US, Waymo is collaborating with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on these types of journeys, using autonomous electric I-PACE vehicles, equipped with LIDAR, radar, and cameras, paired with Waymo’s proprietary AI driving software.
In London, Waymo’s vehicles will be maintained by Moove, a company that provides fleet services, as well as a range of financial products for mobility companies.
According to Waymo, its cars are involved in five times fewer injury-causing crashes compared with those with human drivers. Between July 2024 and February 2025, for example, Waymo disclosed 38 crashes during that interval, and only four of those were attributed to the autonomous system, rather than other road users.
However, in May, Waymo had to recall 1,212 vehicles due to a software glitch after some of the units collided with barriers, such as chains and gates. No injuries were reported in that recall.
