Uber and Wayve ready London robotaxi launch, opening waitlist ahead of summer roll-out
Sign-ups begin for Londoners to ride in AI-driven Ford Mustang Mach-Es from British startup Wayve, with a safety driver on board initially and fares matching standard Uber trips.
London's robotaxi waitlist opens
Uber and British AI startup Wayve are preparing to launch London's first commercial robotaxi service in the coming months, and from Monday 8 June users can join an interest list in the Uber app to increase their chances of being matched with an autonomous vehicle at launch. The two companies announced the sign-up at a presentation of a co-branded black Ford Mustang Mach-E equipped with Wayve's self-driving system. Uber's global autonomous mobility head Annie Duvnjak said the partnership would bring "a new way to ride in London while helping establish the UK as a global hub for autonomous innovation." The service will start pending regulatory approval; Wayve's vice president Kaity Fischer told reporters they are waiting for "a few final permissions."
Together, with Wayve, we're bringing a new way to ride in London while helping establish the UK as a global hub for autonomous innovation.
We are ready, we are just waiting for a few final permissions.
How the rides will work
Passengers requesting UberX, Uber Electric, or Uber Comfort trips could be offered a Wayve ride at no extra cost, and can decline it in favour of a conventional car. At the outset every vehicle will carry a trained safety operator behind the wheel, ready to take over if required. Fischer said the fleet will start small and scale gradually as the technology proves itself. During a test drive in north London last week, a human supervisor in a Ford Mustang Mach-E did not need to intervene once, Reuters reported. The car processed heavy traffic, cyclists, buses and pedestrians using six cameras, radar and an AI computer in the boot.
We start with a limited number of vehicles. We will increase the fleet gradually as the technology matures.
A crowded lane
Wayve is not alone. Alphabet subsidiary Waymo is testing about 100 autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles across a 100-square-mile zone of London and has flagged a passenger launch in the third quarter of 2026. Uber, meanwhile, is hedging: it already partners with Waymo in Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta, though that relationship is showing signs of strain. Chinese giant Baidu is working with Lyft on London trials, and Uber itself has robotaxi projects with Nissan in Tokyo and WeRide in Madrid. London's black-cab drivers, whose "Knowledge" test has sheltered them from competition for over a century, worry that an algorithm able to work around the clock could hollow out the economics of their trade.
Regulatory framework
The UK government has moved to enable commercial self-driving services. Pilot projects without a safety driver are permitted from spring 2026, and the 2024 Automated Vehicles Act is set to allow broader driverless rollouts from late 2027. Local authorities must still give final approval for each deployment. The Department for Transport has said it wants the UK to be at the forefront of autonomous vehicle innovation.
Global ambitions
Wayve, valued at $1.2bn after a funding round backed by Uber, SoftBank, Nvidia, AMD, Arm and Qualcomm, pitches its AI-first approach as distinct from rivals that depend on high-definition maps. Fischer said the system can be deployed "on any vehicle and in new cities." After London, the company plans to launch in Tokyo with Uber and Nissan, and then a further ten cities. For Uber, the robotaxi push is strategic: the company said autonomous trips grew tenfold year on year in its most recent quarter, and London is one of its most valuable markets.
