London gets closer to its first robotaxi service as Waymo begins testing

Waymo has started testing its autonomous vehicles on public roads in London as it prepares to launch a commercial robotaxi service in the city this year.

The Alphabet-owned company has been working towards this moment for months. Waymo announced in October it planned to begin driving on London’s public roads. Waymo employees initially drove the vehicles manually to map the city before starting autonomous testing. For now, the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace equipped with Waymo’s self-driving system have a human safety operator behind the wheel.

“Core driving AI generalizing very well,” Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the testing. “Autonomous testing now underway with specialists behind the wheel as we master local nuances and validate performance on UK roads — a key step toward rider-only deployment.”

Waymo said in another post on LinkedIn that it is investing in the country by hiring locally and establishing multiple AV service centers across London. The company also said it was working with emergency services “as we build the foundation to expand our business in Europe.”

If Waymo follows it’s typical strategy, the company will eventually conduct driverless testing and allow its own employees to try out the service before inviting the public to hail its robotaxis. Waymo’s plans to launch that service in 2026 hinges on the U.K. government finalizing its approval process for those operations.

Waymo already has ties to the U.K: In 2019, the company acquired Latent Logic, a U.K. startup spun out of Oxford University’s computer science department that uses a form of machine learning called imitation learning to make self-driving car simulation more realistic. Waymo launched an engineering hub in Oxford as part of the acquisition.

Waymo has more than 3,000 robotaxis in its fleet, the company has previously told TechCrunch. Documents filed in January with the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration support those figures, although its possible that fleet has expanded with the addition of new minivan-like vehicle made by Zeekr.

The robotaxis are spread out across 11 cities where it operates commercially, including Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area, to name a few. Waymo is also testing and preparing to launch in several other markets.

London could be Waymo’s first international commercial market (it’s also testing in Tokyo). And Waymo will face competition in both of those cities. UK-based autonomous vehicle technology startup Wayve and Uber also plan to launch a fully driverless robotaxi service in London. Wayve, Uber, and Nissan also signed an agreement in March to launch pilot program in Tokyo by late 2026.