Waymo Plans To Launch A Robotaxi Service In London In 2026

Waymo said connected Wednesday it will connection a commercialized robotaxi work successful London successful 2026, marking nan Alphabet-owned company’s 2nd world description pursuing Tokyo.

The announcement to bring nan company’s robotaxis to nan UK follows weeks of speculation fueled by a mates of London-based occupation postings. Waymo already has ties to nan UK. In 2019, nan institution acquired Latent Logic, a UK startup spun retired of Oxford University’s machine subject section that uses a shape of instrumentality learning called imitation learning to make self-driving car simulation much realistic. Waymo launched an engineering hub successful Oxford arsenic portion of nan acquisition.

In a blog post, Waymo said its all-electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicles — equipped pinch self-driving exertion — will statesman driving connected London’s nationalist roads successful nan coming weeks. Waymo will commencement pinch quality information drivers down nan instrumentality earlier it launches driverless testing and yet inviting nan nationalist to hail its robotaxis, a strategy that it has utilized successful different commercialized markets specified arsenic Phoenix and San Francisco.

Waymo wouldn’t supply further specifications connected erstwhile nan institution would region nan quality information driver aliases nan size of nan testing fleet. Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher did corroborate nan institution intends to run a self-driving car work for nationalist riders adjacent year.

When that robotaxi work launches successful 2026 will dangle connected nan UK authorities finalizing its support process for those operations. 

Waymo plans to usage Moove, a institution that already manages its autonomous vehicles (AVs) successful Phoenix, to grip fleet operations. Waymo has progressively tapped partners to stock nan load of operating a robotaxi service. In Austin and Atlanta, its partner Uber splits nan responsibilities of owning and operating a fleet of driverless vehicles. Uber handles nan charging, maintenance, and cleaning of nan autonomous vehicles, and manages entree to nan robotaxis via its app. Meanwhile, Waymo monitors nan tech and nan autonomous operations, including roadside assistance and definite aspects of rider support.

Waymo has ramped up its testing and commercialized operations complete nan past 2 years, spreading beyond its first marketplace successful Phoenix to respective different U.S. cities, including Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The institution besides has plans to connection a commercialized robotaxi work successful Miami, Nashville and Washington DC.