Uber tells London to get ready for robotaxis

Uber is getting ready to put robotaxis on London’s streets, opening an interest list for riders who want to be among the first to hail one of Wayve’s autonomous vehicles when the service goes live later this year. The rollout would be a milestone in one of Uber’s biggest markets and an early test of whether there’s appetite for driverless ridehailing beyond the US and China, where robotaxis are already carrying passengers.

The company is asking Londoners to show their interest in being among the first public passengers in its co-branded Uber x Wayve driverless cars. In the Uber app settings, customers can sign up by selecting “join interest list” in the “autonomous vehicles” section of “ride preferences.” Uber says joining the list will “increase their chances of being matched with a Wayve autonomous vehicle at launch” and keep them updated on the service launch.

Neither Uber nor Wayve, a British startup based in London, would give an exact launch date, though both companies said the service will go live “in the coming months.” Customers matched with a Wayve vehicle will be notified in the Uber app and given the option to switch to a non-autonomous vehicle ride. Uber says riders requesting UberX, Uber Electric, or Uber Comfort will pay the same rate, with “no additional cost” for taking the autonomous vehicle.

Uber and Wayve are positioning the launch as a phased rollout rather than a citywide robotaxi service launch, with negotiations on scope and scale still ongoing with local authorities. Both declined to say which parts of London the vehicles would cover or how large the fleet would be, though Wayve’s Victor Charoonsophonsak told The Verge it would start with a mid-to-high single-digit number of cars.

The first rides will also not be fully driverless. Local regulations currently require the vehicles to have a safety driver behind the wheel, ready to take over if needed. Uber and Wayve would not say when those drivers would be removed.

Even with those limits, Uber’s interest list adds momentum to efforts to bring robotaxis to London’s roads. The UK currently doesn’t have any fully driverless vehicles on public roads, though several companies are testing them. The government has said fully driverless ridehail pilots can begin from spring 2026, though more full rollouts won’t come until late 2027, when the Automated Vehicles Act of 2024 fully takes effect.