Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company, has announced its intention to bring a fully driverless ride-hailing service to London in 2026, marking its first expansion outside the United States and Asia.
The service will operate via the Waymo app and be deployed in collaboration with fleet operations partner Moove. The company is currently working with local and national authorities to obtain the necessary permissions for commercial operations.
In the US, Waymo’s vehicles have accumulated over 100 million fully autonomous miles on public roads and provided more than 10 million paid rides.
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said: ‘We’re thrilled to bring the reliability, safety and magic of Waymo to Londoners. Waymo is making roads safer and transportation more accessible where we operate. We’ve demonstrated how to responsibly scale fully autonomous ride-hailing, and we can’t wait to expand the benefits of our technology to the United Kingdom.’
Waymo already has engineering hubs in London and Oxford and partners with Jaguar Land Rover, using the British company’s all-electric I-PACE vehicles fitted with Waymo’s autonomous driving system.
The company cites safety data indicating its technology is involved in five times fewer injury-causing collisions and twelve times fewer injury-causing collisions with pedestrians compared to human drivers. Waymo has positioned the service as potentially beneficial for London’s road safety targets and for improving mobility options for underserved groups.
Robin Spinks, Head of Inclusive Design at the Royal National Institute of Blind People said: ‘The planned introduction of Waymo in the UK represents the potential for the dawn of a new era in independent mobility options for blind and partially sighted people.
‘As someone who’s been severely sight impaired since birth, I’ve long hoped for the day when technology can safely enable spontaneous autonomous travel. Autonomous vehicles systems should be accessible to everyone and we’re working with the community and our industry partners to ensure that the rollout of this technology prioritises the safety and diverse needs of riders and pedestrians.’
James Gibson, Executive Director of Road Safety GB. said: ‘Autonomous vehicles, such as Waymo, hold the potential to significantly improve road safety because, quite simply, the human driver is removed. The data shows that the Waymo vehicles have performed far safer compared to human drivers across more than 100 million autonomous miles.
‘Rolling out autonomous vehicles in a progressive yet measured way will be the best approach. The road safety profession and wider society should embrace it. It could lead to a future that our vision zero aspirations envision.’
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