Uber Just Asked Londoners to Sign Up for Robotaxis
Uber opened a London interest list for Wayve robotaxis, with a commercial trial set to begin in the coming months.
Key Takeaways
- Uber's London interest list signals a Wayve robotaxi trial launching in the coming months of 2026.
- Early rides keep a safety driver and start with only a handful of cars in select areas.
- Waymo and other Uber partners are also targeting London, setting up a crowded driverless race.
Uber has opened an interest list for Londoners who want to ride in a self-driving car. It is the clearest sign yet that driverless taxis are about to reach the capital's streets.
The rides will be powered by Wayve, the London-based self-driving startup, under a partnership with Uber. Uber owns and operates the fleet while Wayve supplies the AI Driver that handles the actual driving.
Customers can sign up in the Uber app by selecting join interest list under autonomous vehicles. According to The Verge, joining will increase a rider's chances of being matched with a Wayve vehicle at launch.
Neither company would give an exact launch date for the service. According to The Verge, both said the service will go live in the coming months.
The waitlist opens ahead of a commercial trial in London during 2026. According to a report from The Next Web, Bloomberg first reported the waitlist details.
The first rides will not be fully driverless under current local regulations. According to The Verge, the vehicles must have a safety driver behind the wheel, ready to take over if needed.
Wayve told The Verge the deployment would start small at launch. It would begin with a mid-to-high single-digit number of cars across parts of London.
Uber and Wayve plan to deploy SAE Level 4 vehicles in the future. That is the level at which a car can handle everything within a defined area without human intervention.
The timing follows new government rules for commercial self-driving pilots. According to The Verge, fully driverless ridehail pilots can begin from spring 2026 under the Automated Vehicles Act of 2024.
Wayve is one of Europe's most valuable AI startups in the autonomy race. According to The Next Web, it raised 1.2bn dollars last year from backers including Uber, SoftBank, and Nvidia.
Uber is not relying on a single partner for its driverless ambitions. According to The Next Web, it has lined up robotaxi efforts with Nissan in Tokyo and WeRide in Madrid.
The company will not have London to itself in this market. According to The Next Web, Waymo plans to launch a passenger service in the city by the third quarter of 2026.
London's black-cab drivers are sceptical of cars that learned to drive from data. According to The Next Web, their worry is that always-available robotaxis could change the economics of the job.
For Uber, the waitlist is a demand signal and a marketing tool. According to The Next Web, the company said autonomous trips grew tenfold year on year in its most recent quarter.
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