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. <\/p>\n\n
The Alphabet-owned company has been working toward this moment for months. Waymo announced<\/a> in October it planned to begin driving on London\u2019s public roads<\/a>. Waymo employees initially drove the vehicles manually to map the city before starting autonomous testing. For now, a fleet of about 100 all-electric Jaguar I-Pace equipped with Waymo’s self-driving system have a human safety operator behind the wheel. Waymo is testing its vehicles across a 100-square-mile area of the city, according to the company.<\/p>\n\n The government must first finalize its trial program regulations before we can operate fully autonomously. We will work closely with regulators to ensure that our service reaches as many Londoners as possible.<\/p>\n\n “Core driving AI generalizing very well,” Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov wrote in a LinkedIn post<\/a> announcing the testing. “Autonomous testing now underway with specialists behind the wheel as we master local nuances and validate performance on UK roads \u2014 a key step toward rider-only deployment.”<\/p>\n\n Waymo said in another post<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n\n If Waymo follows its 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.<\/p>\n\n Waymo already has ties to the U.K.: In 2019, the company acquired Latent Logic<\/a>, a U.K. startup spun out of Oxford University\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n