Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company backed by Google’s parent firm Alphabet, has confirmed plans to roll out its self-driving ride-hailing service in London in 2026, marking a major step forward in the UK’s adoption of autonomous transport.
Already operating fully driverless services in US cities including Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Waymo will work with fleet partner Moove to establish a service in the UK capital, using Jaguar Land Rover’s electric I-Pace vehicles equipped with its proprietary Waymo Driver technology.
The move places Waymo in direct competition with major ride-hailing rivals Uber and Lyft, both of which are preparing to launch their own autonomous services in the UK next year. Uber is partnering with London-based AI firm Wayve, while Lyft has teamed up with Chinese internet giant Baidu to expand into both the UK and Germany.
“We’re thrilled to bring the reliability, safety and magic of Waymo to Londoners,” said Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo’s co-CEO. “We’ve demonstrated how to responsibly scale fully autonomous ride-hailing, and we can’t wait to expand the benefits of our technology to the United Kingdom.”
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
