Uber and Lyft bring robotaxis to London
Uber and Lyft plan to launch autonomous taxi services in London in 2026. Waymo had also previously announced this.
Robotaxi Baidu Apollo RT6
(Image: Baidu)
Waymo is getting competition in London: The two US ride-hailing services Lyft and Uber want to deploy self-driving taxis in the British capital independently of each other. Both companies announced this via the microblogging service X.
Uber wishes to start tests in London in the first half of the year, the company announced. Lyft CEO David Risher did not provide any details on when Lyft plans to launch the service in his announcement.
Baidu as a partner
Both are planning with the same partner: They intend to deploy vehicles equipped with the Apollo Go system from the Chinese digital conglomerate Baidu. Both Lyft and Uber announced collaborations with Baidu in the summer. Lyft also wants to bring the RT60 vehicles to Germany.
They are not the only ones who intend to bring their robotaxis to London starting next year: Alphabet's subsidiary Waymo announced in October that it will come to London in 2026.
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The British government accelerated a pilot program for autonomous driving in the summer and moved up the start date by one year to 2026.
(wpl)