A Waymo self-driving car with a sensor array mounted on its roof drives near palm trees and modern buildings along the Embarcadero on February 21, 2025 in San Francisco, California.
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alphabetWaymo is bringing its driverless ride-hailing service to London, the robotaxi’s first European market.
The company said in a release Wednesday that it plans to begin test drives on London roads in the coming months, with human safety experts behind the wheel. The company plans to launch a robotaxi service next year if it receives permission from regulators and local and national leaders.
London will be the company’s second international city after Tokyo, where the trial began in early 2025.
Waymo is aggressively expanding in the United States and currently offers commercial services in the Los Angeles area, Phoenix, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas. The company has also announced plans to launch robotaxi services in Miami and Washington, D.C., and in August said it received permission to begin testing self-driving cars with trained safety drivers in New York City.
In London, Waymo’s fleet will consist of Jaguar iPACE electric vehicles equipped with the company’s Waymo Driver autonomous system. Waymo said it has already hired engineering teams in Oxford and London and will work with Moove to handle the operations and maintenance of its vehicles.
Moove provides vehicle financing to drivers who want to purchase new vehicles for ride-hailing, and provides services such as electric vehicle cleaning, some repairs, and charging to transportation operators such as Waymo and Waymo. Uberan investor in startups.
In June, the UK announced an accelerated framework for commercial trials by AV ventures in an effort to bring investment in autonomous driving to the region. Earlier this year, London also set a Vision Zero goal of eliminating serious injuries and deaths on transport by 2041.
Waymo analyzed its own data and found that its system “compared to humans, causes one-fifth of collisions with pedestrians and one-twelfth of collisions with injuries.”
The company also reported that its self-driving cars have logged 100 million “fully autonomous miles” on public roads and have provided more than 10 million paid rides to passengers to date.
Waymo, part of Alphabet’s “Other Bets” division, posted revenue of $373 million on a loss of $1.25 billion in the second quarter. Alphabet is scheduled to announce its third quarter results on October 29th.
Wave, a UK-based startup backed by SoftBank and Microsoft, previously announced that it plans to launch a commercial trial of robotaxis in London next year. Waymo uses radar, lidar, and other advanced sensors in its vehicles, while Wayve develops camera-based systems. Tesla’s Pursuit.
—CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.
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