London gets closer to its first robotaxi service as Waymo begins testing

Waymo has officially commenced the testing of its autonomous vehicles on the streets of London, gearing up for a highly anticipated robotaxi service set to debut later this year. The subsidiary of Alphabet has been diligently preparing for this pivotal moment over the past several months. In a move announced last October, Waymo began manual driving to meticulously map the city ahead of transitioning to autonomous operations. Currently, the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, equipped with Waymo’s advanced self-driving technology, have a safety operator present during testing. Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo's co-CEO, shared an update on LinkedIn, stating, "Core driving AI generalizing very well. Autonomous testing now underway with specialists behind the wheel as we master local nuances and validate performance on UK roads — a key step toward rider-only deployment." The company has also highlighted its commitment to the UK, revealing plans to hire locally and set up several autonomous vehicle service centers throughout London. Furthermore, Waymo is collaborating with emergency services to lay the groundwork for expanding its operations across Europe. Following its typical operational strategy, the company is expected to conduct driverless testing in the future and will likely allow its own employees to experience the service before making it available to the public. The anticipated launch of the robotaxi service in 2026 is contingent upon the UK government completing its approval processes. Waymo has established a connection to the UK since acquiring Latent Logic in 2019, a startup from Oxford University known for enhancing self-driving car simulations through imitation learning. This acquisition also led to the establishment of an engineering hub in Oxford. Waymo claims to have a fleet of over 3,000 robotaxis, with previous documentation corroborating this figure. The fleet operates across 11 cities, including major hubs like Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area. While London stands as a potential first international commercial market for Waymo, competition looms from local autonomous vehicle startup Wayve and Uber, both of which are also working on launching driverless services in the city. Additionally, an agreement between Wayve, Uber, and Nissan aims to initiate a pilot program in Tokyo by late 2026.