London robotaxi rollout likely delayed as regulatory guidance remains pending, The Guardian reports

Only weeks ago Uber and London-based Wayve were granted the first minicab licences in the capital to offer self-driving taxi rides to paying customers, with a human safety driver in place for now. The companies said they would start trips later this summer before a full public launch. In 2025, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander accelerated the proposed timeline for commercial trials of fully driverless taxi services by a year, announcing that they would start in spring 2026.

However, progress has slowed in recent months. Transport for London (TfL) has still not published the guidance that companies wanting to offer services must follow to win its approval. Last month, TfL’s director of strategy, Christina Calderato, told the London Assembly’s transport committee that the transit authority would not be in a position to start accepting applications “for some time.” She said: “I do not think we are in a rush to get [the guidelines] out. There is a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes.”

Uber and Wayve have said more than 100,000 Londoners are on their waiting list for self-driving taxis. They are racing against Google-owned Waymo and China’s Baidu Apollo Go to launch services in London. Robotaxis are now available in more than 20 cities across the US, China and the Middle East. Earlier this month Zagreb became the first European city to offer autonomous rides to the public through Uber, though with a human driver for “onboard monitoring.” On Tuesday, Waymo announced plans to launch commercial operations in Munich, Germany, late next year.

Ben Loewenstein, Waymo’s head of policy and government affairs for the UK and Europe, said the company was working through the safety approval process with the department for transport and waiting on TfL’s guidance. He added that Waymo was working toward launching a fully autonomous service “by the end of this year” but would not say whether it would offer paid rides to the public in that timeframe.

TfL has granted 15 private hire vehicle licences to Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles equipped with Wayve’s artificial intelligence driving software, as well as surround cameras and radar. A TfL-licensed private hire driver will sit in the driver’s seat during trips to intervene if necessary, though the software is expected to control the car. Uber and Wayve plan to launch small-scale commercial pilots with a driver behind the wheel soon. For a fully driverless launch, Wayve plans to switch to a new Nissan Leaf vehicle still in production and due later this year.

Alex Kendall, Wayve’s chief executive, told the Financial Times the company never claimed it would have a fully driverless operation this year. “I don’t want to put a timeline on it because we want to make sure we pass through [the regulatory process],” he said. “This work is continuing at pace. London is a significant step up in complexity compared to Phoenix or San Francisco.” Baidu only began testing vehicles in London at the end of last month and has said it plans to launch public rides next year. Operating taxis without a driver requires approval through a new automated passenger services permit with the government’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency; so far, no vehicles have been approved.