Driverless Taxis to Take On London's Storied Black Cabs

“London's famous black cabs are about to get some new competition: robotaxis.

 

Waymo said Wednesday it would launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the U.K. capital next year, marking the Alphabet-owned company's European debut. Uber also is planning to roll out a London robotaxi service after striking a partnership with local autonomous-driving startup Wayve.

 

Robotaxis are set to become the newest cog in a centuries-old transport machine that includes many services that were groundbreaking in their day, such as the world's first underground railroad and its first regulated taxi service.

 

Driverless taxis are rapidly becoming a familiar sight -- sometimes even a tourist attraction -- in tech-friendly American cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. In August, Waymo also received a permit to start testing with safety drivers in New York City.

 

But London's mix of medieval alleyways, Victorian terraces and modern roundabouts are set to pose a new challenge.

 

Waymo said a small fleet of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles fitted with special sensors is already in transit and will start navigating through London in the coming weeks. Initially, humans will do the driving to map the city's streets and gather data.

 

London is Waymo's second international city after Tokyo, where it started testing its technology on public roads earlier this year.

 

The U.K. government is eager to embrace robotaxis as part of a plan to foster technology-led investment and growth. In June, it hit the pedal, saying it would allow pilot projects in the spring of 2026 ahead of a full legal rollout in 2027. Uber and London-based Wayve said at the time they would trial the technology, though they didn't specify a timetable.

 

Robotaxis pose a fresh threat to London's traditional cabbies, whose numbers have declined rapidly in recent years. There were 14,069 black cabs earlier this month, according to licensing data, down from roughly 22,000 a decade ago.

 

As the boxy people carriers have dwindled in London, vehicles regulated for "private hire" -- which include services like Uber that must be prebooked -- have proliferated and now number more than 96,000.

 

Black-cab drivers have to memorize London's labyrinth of streets and pass a test known as "the Knowledge," a feat sometimes seen as an anachronistic barrier to recruitment in the age of the sat-nav.

 

Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, which represents the famously opinionated cabbies, attributed their decline to the pandemic and said numbers would stabilize in the coming years. Robotaxis aren't a threat for now, he said.

 

"I've got no confidence in the software being as smart as it needs to be to work in a city like London," McNamara said, noting its convoluted street network, which emerged from a patchwork of medieval villages.

 

London's cabbies were fierce opponents of Uber after it launched in London in 2012, blocking streets and launching legal challenges. Eventually, though, relations settled down as ride-hailing companies stopped pouring money into a ruinous price war and black cabs improved their service by adopting card machines and smoother-running electric vehicles.

 

"Uber is no longer the bogeyman it was," said McNamara.” [1]

 

1. Driverless Taxis to Take On London's Storied Black Cabs. Wilmot, Stephen.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 16 Oct 2025: B4.