London's robotaxis are ready. The rulebook isn't
Waymo wanted paid driverless rides in London by September. Instead, not a single permit has been issued and TfL says it's in no rush. Here's why you still can't hail a robotaxi in the capital.
A year ago, Waymo announced it would bring its driverless taxis to London, its first city outside the US. The plan was a pilot in the spring and a paid service by September 2026. It's now the end of September, and you still can't book a Waymo in London. The cars aren't the problem. The paperwork is.
According to Tech Times, not a single permit for a driverless passenger service has been approved, no vehicle has been certified for driverless operation in London, and Transport for London hasn't even published the guidance operators need to apply. TfL's director of strategy, Christina Calderato, was blunt: "I do not think we are in a rush to get the guidelines out."
Where the robotaxis actually are
Waymo has been driving around London since late last year, first with people at the wheel to map the city, and since April in autonomous mode with trained safety specialists on board. It now has around 100 Jaguar I-Pace cars in the capital, and talks about a "fully autonomous service by the end of this year" rather than September.
The first self-driving cars Londoners can actually ride in aren't Waymo's at all. On 3 September, British company Wayve and Uber launched supervised self-driving rides in London with fewer than 20 electric Ford Mustang Mach-Es. There's a licensed safety driver in every car. You can't pick a robotaxi, but the Uber app may match you with one, and you can decline. Fares are the same as a normal Uber. China's Baidu is testing in the city too.
Three approvals, none granted
To run a truly driverless taxi in London, an operator has to clear three hurdles. The Vehicle Certification Agency has to approve the car as safe for London's roads. The DVSA has to issue a permit for an automated passenger service. And TfL has to give local consent. None of those steps has been completed for anyone yet.
That's awkward for a government that promised to move fast. In June 2025, ministers announced a fast-tracked pilot scheme aiming to get commercial self-driving services running by spring 2026, well ahead of the full rules under the Automated Vehicles Act, which are due in late 2027. Spring came and went.
Is slow such a bad thing?
It's easy to fall for the "Britain falls behind" headline, and there's some truth in it. Waymo runs fully driverless services in 14 US cities. The Department for Transport has estimated self-driving vehicles could add £42 billion to the UK economy by 2035, although some in the industry question that number.
But London is a very different place to drive than Phoenix. Narrow streets, buses, cyclists, hire bikes and pedestrians who can legally cross wherever they like make it one of the toughest tests going. Waymo's cars have had their problems in the US, too, including driving illegally around school buses in Austin and getting confused when traffic lights failed during a San Francisco power cut.
A regulator that wants the rules properly written before driverless cars arrive in numbers isn't necessarily being obstructive. It's doing its job. The real problem is the mixed messages: ministers promising spring launches while the people who have to approve them say there's no hurry.
So when can you ride one?
Waymo is still aiming for the end of this year. My bet is that a genuinely driverless ride in London is more likely in 2027, given that none of the three approvals has started to land. In the meantime, the Wayve and Uber cars, with a human ready to take over, are the closest you'll get. More than 140,000 people have joined that waitlist, so don't hold your breath there either.
Mind the hype. And keep a black cab number handy.
Sources: Tech Times, ZAG Daily, Tech Funding News, Associated Press via Yahoo, Silicon UK, ZAG Daily (remote operations).