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The world’s two biggest driverless car groups plan to launch robotaxis in London in 2026, as the UK capital emerges as the latest battleground between the US and China over artificial intelligence.

Silicon Valley-based Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, began road-testing customised autonomous Jaguar models in London in December.

Beijing-based Baidu is expected to launch its RT6 cars in the city in the coming months after striking partnerships with US ride-hailing groups Lyft and Uber.

The groups have accelerated plans for British launches after the UK government announced it would allow commercial trials of driverless cars this spring.

Those moves mean London is likely to become the first city where both US and Chinese robotaxis operate, as the companies’ aggressive global expansion plans lead to direct competition.

Jack Stilgoe, a technology policy professor at University College London, said the development offers an opportunity for the UK.

Britain wants to be “the place that slowly writes the rules for this technology that isn’t the Wild West of Silicon Valley or the wild east of Beijing”, he said.

While groups such as Elon Musk’s Tesla and London-based Wayve are expected to provide competition over time, Waymo and Baidu have established themselves as the AV market leaders.

Waymo’s robotaxis are nearing 1mn fully autonomous rides every week and its customers in US cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix have taken almost 20mn rides in total to date. Baidu’s Apollo Go is catching up, hitting 17mn cumulative rides in November.

Waymo and Baidu see London as key to their international growth strategies. Chinese automakers and tech companies are largely barred from operating driverless vehicles in the US under restrictions introduced in the final days of the Biden administration. Chinese AV groups have instead been looking to Europe and the Middle East to test their systems.

Despite ongoing tensions between Washington and Beijing over large language models — the AI systems that power Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT — there has so far been less political blowback for American groups working with Chinese driverless car companies.

Uber and Lyft are working with several Chinese autonomous vehicle companies, including Baidu, Pony.ai and WeRide, outside the US.

“Self-driving cars will bring a lot of benefits to society mainly in the form of safety, but we need to recognise that China is already well ahead of us [in the US and Europe],” said Alex Ferrara, a London-based tech investor with Bessemer Venture Partners.

However, it is unclear how Waymo and Baidu’s momentum will continue on the complex and congested streets of London.

Stilgoe pointed to the problem of zebra crossings for pedestrians, which are common in the UK but rare in the US. Many members of the public are sceptical of AV companies’ safety claims, he added.

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Ferrara said there remain “national security risks associated with self-driving vehicles”.

“These cars are essentially mobile AI super computers,” he said. “Under the control of an adversarial government, they could be used for sensitive information gathering — perhaps recording your conversations while in the car, blocking roads and traffic, or could even be used for a kinetic attack.”

Jeremy Bird, executive vice-president for global growth at Lyft, said Baidu’s “extensive track record” would bring “safety, reliability and privacy to millions of Europeans”.

“We’ll make sure data processing and sharing between Lyft and Baidu complies with applicable laws to ensure we create an AV future that thrives in the UK,” he added.

Waymo said data collected by its sensors “is used solely to develop and validate our safety-critical autonomous driving technology”.

In London, companies seeking to trial driverless technology must engage with the mayor, boroughs and Transport for London. A further licence is required to operate a commercial passenger service, and all trials must comply with UK data protection and privacy regulations.

“Safety is our top priority, and we are interested in learning more about technologies that could potentially help deliver safety benefits for all road users,” TfL said.