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Waymo has started testing its autonomous vehicles on public roads in London as it prepares to launch a commercial robotaxi service in the city this year. <\/p>\n
The Alphabet-owned company has been working towards this moment for months. Waymo announced<\/a> in October it planned to begin driving on London\u2019s public roads<\/a>. Waymo employees initially drove the vehicles manually to map the city before starting autonomous testing. For now, the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace equipped with Waymo\u2019s self-driving system have a human safety operator behind the wheel. <\/p>\n \u201cCore driving AI generalizing very well,\u201d Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov wrote in a LinkedIn post<\/a> announcing the testing. \u201cAutonomous testing now underway with specialists behind the wheel as we master local nuances and validate performance on UK roads \u2014 a key step toward rider-only deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n Waymo said in another post<\/a> on LinkedIn that it is investing in the country by hiring locally and establishing multiple AV service centers across London. The company also said it was working with emergency services \u201cas we build the foundation to expand our business in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n If Waymo follows it\u2019s typical strategy, the company will eventually conduct driverless testing and allow its own employees to try out the service before inviting the public to hail its robotaxis. Waymo\u2019s plans to launch that service in 2026 hinges on the U.K. government finalizing its approval process for those operations.<\/p>\n Waymo already has ties to the U.K: In 2019, the company\u00a0acquired Latent Logic<\/a>, a U.K. startup spun out of Oxford University\u2019s computer science department that uses a form of machine learning called imitation learning to make self-driving car simulation more realistic. Waymo launched an engineering hub in Oxford as part of the acquisition.<\/p>\n Waymo has more than 3,000 robotaxis in its fleet, the company has previously told TechCrunch. Documents filed in January with the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration support those figures, although its possible that fleet has expanded with the addition of new minivan-like vehicle made by Zeekr. <\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> The robotaxis are spread out across 11 cities where it operates commercially, including Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area, to name a few. Waymo is also testing and preparing to launch in several other markets. <\/p>\n London could be Waymo\u2019s first international commercial market (it\u2019s also testing in Tokyo<\/a>). And Waymo will face competition in both of those cities. UK-based autonomous vehicle technology startup Wayve and Uber<\/a> also plan to launch a fully driverless robotaxi service in London. Wayve, Uber, and Nissan also signed an agreement in March to launch pilot program <\/a>in Tokyo by late 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n