- Uber and Wayve beat Waymo to the punch, launching the United Kingdom’s first public robotaxi service.
- The autonomous Ford Mustang Mach-E EVs can be hailed through the Uber app in London starting today.
- The cars can travel anywhere in the capital, apart from airports.
Uber is the first company to offer autonomous taxi rides in the United Kingdom, after the initial batch of driverless cabs hit the streets of London today, beating Waymo to the punch. Uber’s electric Ford Mustang Mach-E taxis are fitted with Wayve’s autonomous driving technology and can navigate anywhere in the city, except for airports, the ride-hailing company said.
It’s a big deal for the firm that has invested massively in several robotaxi endeavors, and it paves the way for other firms to offer autonomous cab rides in the region. That said, the initial rollout includes licensed private hire drivers sitting behind the steering wheel, acting as safety monitors.
Uber and Wayve’s autonomous Ford Mustang Mach-E in London, UK
Photo by: Wayve
Wayve, the UK startup that has developed the hardware and software stacks for the vehicles, said that it’s starting with a small number of vehicles, and that the fleet will grow “thoughtfully” over time in line with rider demand, readiness, and regulation.
To ride in an autonomous Mustang Mach-E, Uber users who want to hail an UberX, Uber Electric, or Uber Comfort have to use their app as always. The app may match them with a Wayve ride at no extra cost, but there’s no guarantee that a robotaxi will pick them up. If one does show up in the app, riders have the option to accept or switch to a regular, non-AV ride before the car arrives.
Photo by: Uber
To boost their chances of being matched with a Wayve robotaxi, Uber riders in London can go to the app’s Trip Preferences page under the settings section and opt in for AVs. Once the robotaxi arrives, the doors can be unlocked, and the trip can be started from the smartphone app.
The hardware setup fitted by Wayve to the Mustang Mach-E crossovers doesn’t use lidars and doesn’t require pre-made high-definition maps to navigate, much like Tesla’s vision-only approach. Wayve’s sensor stack includes radars, but the company said that the system was designed to be hardware agnostic, thanks to software that can run on whatever sensors and chips an automaker uses.
Like Tesla’s Robotaxi, Wayve’s AV2.0 system learns while driving, taking in new information with every trip and adapting to all of the weird and wonderful scenarios that can happen on the road.
In London, the electric Ford crossovers will be serviced by Uber in partnership with Otto Car, a UK fleet operator, while Wayve will manage the autonomous driving system.
Waymo, the biggest player in the American robotaxi game, said it will launch its driverless cab service in London by the end of the year.
