February 6, 2026

Driverless taxis coming to London – what’s the current evidence?

It was announced today that Waymo plan to launch a pilot driverless taxi service in London in April this year, with Wayve also planning to launch driverless taxis with Uber later in the year.

Autonomous vehicles (driverless cars) have been under development for decades, moving from controlled research environments into limited real-world trials in several countries. While advances in AI, sensors and computing power have accelerated progress, public debate has remained cautious, shaped by questions around safety, accountability, regulation, and how humans interact with automated systems in complex city settings.

As the UK prepares for its first driverless taxi services on public roads, journalists came to this press briefing to hear from independent autonomous vehicles experts who can give a background on the state of the evidence around autonomous vehicles and help unpick what is known, and not yet known, about the technology and its impacts.

The experts covered questions about the following and more:

• How do driverless taxis actually “see” and make decisions? What level of autonomy is currently deployed in the latest models? What are the known technical limitations of current AI systems in unpredictable city environments?
• What does the existing evidence say about the safety of autonomous vehicles compared with human drivers? What kinds of incidents have occurred in previous trials internationally, and what have we learned from them?
• What challenges arise when humans must interpret or anticipate the actions of a vehicle with no driver?
• What is the current regulation in the UK? How do UK proposals compare with regulatory approaches in other countries? What regulatory changes are required for driverless taxi services to operate in the UK?
• What are the ethical considerations when introducing these vehicles onto our roads? What transparency is owed to the public about how these vehicles are designed and tested?

Speakers included:

Professor John McDermid, Professor of Software Engineering at the University of York

Professor Natasha Merat, Chair in Human Factors of Transport Systems, University of Leeds

Dr Nick Reed, independent expert consultant, Reed Mobility

Prof Jack Stilgoe, Professor of Science and Technology Policy, University College London (UCL)