London's first robotaxis are now bookable on Uber, but only 15 cars are out there
Wayve's self-driving vehicles have quietly joined the Uber app, giving Londoners a way to hail an autonomous taxi for the first time. Catch is: your odds of actually getting one are very low.
Key points
- Wayve, a London-based self-driving car company, added its autonomous vehicles to the Uber app on Thursday.
- Only 15 Wayve robotaxis currently hold the licences needed to carry paying passengers in London.
- Roughly 100,000 Uber customers in London have already signed up for the chance to take an autonomous ride.
- Every Wayve vehicle carries a human in the front seat, trained to take control if something goes wrong.
- London has more than 100,000 licensed private-hire vehicles in total, dwarfing the robotaxi fleet.
For the first time, Londoners can open the Uber app and request a self-driving taxi. Wayve, a UK startup that builds software to make cars drive themselves, quietly launched paid rides on Thursday, as first reported by The Guardian.
The cars look mostly like regular vehicles. The difference is that the steering wheel moves on its own. A trained human sits in the front, ready to grab the wheel the moment the system needs help, so no passenger rides completely alone with the machine.
How likely are you to actually get one?
Not very. Only 15 Wayve vehicles are licensed to carry paying passengers right now, against more than 100,000 private-hire cars already operating across the city. About 100,000 Uber customers have registered interest in autonomous rides, meaning the waiting pool is enormous and the fleet is tiny.
Think of it less as a new transport option and more as a live public trial. Most people who try to book one will get a regular Uber instead.
What is Wayve, and how does its technology work?
Wayve trains its driving software the way you might train a new employee: by showing it millions of hours of real driving footage until it learns to handle junctions, cyclists, and rain-soaked roundabouts on its own. The company calls this approach "end-to-end AI", meaning the system takes in what the cameras see and produces steering and braking decisions directly, without a long list of hand-written rules.
The company is backed by investors including Nvidia and SoftBank and has been testing on London streets for several years. Thursday's Uber launch is its first step into carrying paying passengers.
What does this mean for ordinary passengers?
If you do land a Wayve ride, you sit in the back as you normally would. The car drives. The human in the front monitors everything and can intervene instantly. Wayve and Uber have not published the fare structure yet, so pricing compared to a standard ride is unclear.
For most Londoners, nothing changes today. The 15-car fleet is a proof of concept, not a service. If the trial goes well and licensing expands, that could change over the next year or two.
Common questions
Is it safe to ride in one of these cars?
Every vehicle has a trained human safety operator in the front seat who can take control at any moment. The cars also went through Transport for London licensing before carrying passengers, the same process any private-hire vehicle must pass.
Will self-driving taxis replace Uber drivers?
Not soon. Fifteen cars against more than 100,000 licensed drivers in London is not a threat to anyone's job today. Fleet size would need to grow by orders of magnitude before that conversation becomes practical.
