Uber and Wayve launch driverless taxi service in London

The vehicles, fitted with radar, Lidar and multiple other sensors by Wayve, will operate across an area covering most of Greater London, stretching to Bexley in the east, Barnet in the north and just short of Rickmansworth in the northwest. During the initial pilot phase, a TfL-certified taxi driver will remain in the driver's seat to supervise each trip, Uber said. The company has not yet revealed exact dates for when it plans to run a completely driverless service.

With only 15 Wayve vehicles among London's roughly 100,000 Uber fleet, the odds of being matched with an autonomous vehicle are slim, TechRadar noted. Riders who do match with an autonomous cab will follow the same booking process as normal, but will see an "unlock vehicle" icon in the app when the car arrives. Tapping it unlocks the doors, and passengers can start the trip either in the app or via a screen inside the vehicle. Uber says it will still encourage passengers to rate the ride after it ends, as with the rest of its fleet.

According to TechRadar, the vehicles use Wayve's latest generation of self-driving technology, dubbed AV 2.0, which relies on artificial intelligence and machine learning to make driving decisions on its own, rather than depending on a remote teleoperator. Because the system can quickly apply lessons learned during years of testing, the vehicles are able to operate outside a tightly geofenced area, unlike Tesla's current robotaxi operation in Austin, Texas, although that area is also expanding.

Uber says users can improve their chances of being matched with a Wayve vehicle by updating the app to the latest version. Those selected to receive the autonomous option can then go to the Account button in the right corner of the home screen, open Settings, scroll down to Ride Preferences and look for a section dedicated to autonomous vehicles. Turning on AV preferences there increases the likelihood of seeing an autonomous ride option, but with only 15 Wayve vehicles in operation, a regular human-driven car is still far more likely to arrive, TechRadar said.