*Chinese robotaxis are due to be on the streets of London next year after the US ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber announced tie-ups with Beijing-based Baidu to deploy its self-driving technology.*
*Lyft is the third firm to announce plans to introduce self-driving taxis to the UK capital next year,*
Oh one drove past me in Chiswick the other day, I had no idea what it was.
They have been all around W10 last few weeks. Presumably they thought this was a relatively safe area for them to test with fairly low traffic and a good range of different road types from modern to ancient little back alleys.
Hint, if these things have the same logic as their US counterparts and you want to immobilise one, simply place a traffic cone on the front bonnet.
They’re programmed to avoid traffic cones at all costs and basically have a panic attack with one being that close
I work in Chiswick Park and see these most days! Not sure if their base of operations is there or somethingâŠ
Today and tomorrow are pretty quiet days for traffic in central London so I assume theyâre trying to get some testing in when the roads are quiet.
Looking forward to this. Robot car canât constantly refuse my trips because they canât be arsed driving to a particular area.
I saw one in North Acton crossing Western Avenue and it appeared to be driverless, was left hand drive too.
Saw one driving around Shepherd’s Bush Green couple days ago.
Will these get parking tickets, picking and dropping passengers on a zigzag or a box junction etcÂ
I-Paces have turning circles like buses, such a strange car to choose.
Who gets the fines if it gets done for stopping in a yellow box, for example?
He probably wasnât actually driving it. When waymo rolls out in new locations, somebody has to be behind the wheel to take over if there are issues during testing, but the car largely drives itself.
Iâm very excited that waymo are expanding, what an incredible innovation.
What cars are they using?
We never even got Zip cars where I live, and that’s just gone tits up! I wonder if they’ll all end up here anyway, like the hire bikes somehow do…
It’s wild to see one of these on our streets already. I’m really curious how they’ll handle the chaos of London traffic compared to other cities. The training data angle makes a lot of sense, they’ll need a ton of it. This rollout is going to be fascinating to watch.
I see one daily infront of Marylebone Station in the morning.
Spotted one near Richmond Park, I gave way n it didnât wave. Low-key pissed me off. Even bloody robots in London should know the courtesy wave.
Knoway
I saw one of these on the M1 the other day, being followed by another Waymo car with âtest vehicleâ on the back. Of course it was just sat in lane 2âŠ
I donât think theyâll be bad drivers but theyâll force human drivers to do stupid shit around them. If they are cautious & deliberate, youâll have your usual assholes that have zero patience and illegally overtake or something.
Didnât know them had them round here. Gotta keep my cat indoors
Heâs sideways across the end of a minor road, asking questions like David Byrne.
Yeah I saw it driving around Ladbroke Grove Sainsburys last week. There wass someone behind wheel though.
Used it in SF and was quite ok.
I think they will struggle with London’s drivers and haphazard parking.
In my experience Drivers in SF were far less aggressive than a typical London driver.
Sorry? In London???
If cabbies were even half as awful I would be super against this….but alas the combination of declining my rides with an air of superiority and then lecturing me, an immigrant, about how immigrants are ruining the country does not leave me inclined to have their back on this one.
They all currently have to have a âvehicle safety officerâ behind the wheel.
i didnt even know london or the uk were getting waymos
33 comments
Wowsticles.
They *did* say they would be starting in London in 2026, so this one’s an early starter I guess.
I had no idea they were coming to London. This is gonna be interesting
Canât wait for the inevitable waymo kills cyclist/biker
no confirmed dates yet but I saw this today
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/22/chinese-robotaxis-due-in-london-next-year-as-lyft-and-uber-reveal-tie-ups](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/22/chinese-robotaxis-due-in-london-next-year-as-lyft-and-uber-reveal-tie-ups)
*Chinese robotaxis are due to be on the streets of London next year after the US ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber announced tie-ups with Beijing-based Baidu to deploy its self-driving technology.*
*Lyft is the third firm to announce plans to introduce self-driving taxis to the UK capital next year,*
Oh one drove past me in Chiswick the other day, I had no idea what it was.
They have been all around W10 last few weeks. Presumably they thought this was a relatively safe area for them to test with fairly low traffic and a good range of different road types from modern to ancient little back alleys.
Hint, if these things have the same logic as their US counterparts and you want to immobilise one, simply place a traffic cone on the front bonnet.
They’re programmed to avoid traffic cones at all costs and basically have a panic attack with one being that close
I work in Chiswick Park and see these most days! Not sure if their base of operations is there or somethingâŠ
Today and tomorrow are pretty quiet days for traffic in central London so I assume theyâre trying to get some testing in when the roads are quiet.
Looking forward to this. Robot car canât constantly refuse my trips because they canât be arsed driving to a particular area.
I saw one in North Acton crossing Western Avenue and it appeared to be driverless, was left hand drive too.
Saw one driving around Shepherd’s Bush Green couple days ago.
Will these get parking tickets, picking and dropping passengers on a zigzag or a box junction etcÂ
I-Paces have turning circles like buses, such a strange car to choose.
Who gets the fines if it gets done for stopping in a yellow box, for example?
He probably wasnât actually driving it. When waymo rolls out in new locations, somebody has to be behind the wheel to take over if there are issues during testing, but the car largely drives itself.
Iâm very excited that waymo are expanding, what an incredible innovation.
What cars are they using?
We never even got Zip cars where I live, and that’s just gone tits up! I wonder if they’ll all end up here anyway, like the hire bikes somehow do…
It’s wild to see one of these on our streets already. I’m really curious how they’ll handle the chaos of London traffic compared to other cities. The training data angle makes a lot of sense, they’ll need a ton of it. This rollout is going to be fascinating to watch.
I see one daily infront of Marylebone Station in the morning.
Spotted one near Richmond Park, I gave way n it didnât wave. Low-key pissed me off. Even bloody robots in London should know the courtesy wave.
Knoway
I saw one of these on the M1 the other day, being followed by another Waymo car with âtest vehicleâ on the back. Of course it was just sat in lane 2âŠ
I donât think theyâll be bad drivers but theyâll force human drivers to do stupid shit around them. If they are cautious & deliberate, youâll have your usual assholes that have zero patience and illegally overtake or something.
Didnât know them had them round here. Gotta keep my cat indoors
Heâs sideways across the end of a minor road, asking questions like David Byrne.
Yeah I saw it driving around Ladbroke Grove Sainsburys last week. There wass someone behind wheel though.
Used it in SF and was quite ok.
I think they will struggle with London’s drivers and haphazard parking.
In my experience Drivers in SF were far less aggressive than a typical London driver.
Sorry? In London???
If cabbies were even half as awful I would be super against this….but alas the combination of declining my rides with an air of superiority and then lecturing me, an immigrant, about how immigrants are ruining the country does not leave me inclined to have their back on this one.
They all currently have to have a âvehicle safety officerâ behind the wheel.
i didnt even know london or the uk were getting waymos
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