Waymo automobiles noticed on the streets of London as driverless robotaxi agency bids to launch cab service within the capital – however they should get used to zebra crossings first

Waymo cars have been spotted on the streets of London as the driverless robotaxi firm aims to launch in the UK by the end of the year. 

The vehicles, designed to be fully autonomous taxis with no-one in the driver’s seat, are currently being tested in London ahead of a targeted rollout by the fourth quarter of 2026.

The company, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, has grown slowly but steadily over the ​years in the United States despite tough regulations and ​expensive technology, enabling it to look ​at scaling up its presence abroad.

Waymo has partnered with Jaguar and its fleet of white vehicles are easily spotted due to their large mounted camera equipment on the top and sides of each car. 

The firm, which already operates a completely driverless service in American cities including San Francisco, Miami and Atlanta, currently has 24 vehicles roaming London for testing and street mapping purposes.

At present, a safety driver still sits at the wheel of the cars, but the company aims to launch a full pilot scheme as early as April.

The vehicles, currently being tested in 19 London boroughs, need still to overcome a host of challenges associated with British streets including roundabouts and zebra crossings. 

And concerns remain about the safety of unleashing driverless cars on Britain’s streets, as well as keeping them secure from a host of modern threats such as cyberattacks. 

For the last two months drivers have manually steered Waymo cars around the city in order to ‘learn the nuances, learn about the zebra crossings’, Ben Loewenstein, head of EU and UK policy and government affairs at Waymo, said.

The cars have been spotted across London in recent weeks, including passing iconic landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and driving through the city’s most famous shopping streets. 

The taxis use four sensor systems to gather and use data from the world around them – vision, radar, microphone and lidar.

Lidar – Light Detection and Ranging – is a remote sensing method that uses laser pulses to measure distances and create precise 3D, high-resolution models of objects and surrounding terrain.

A powerful computer in the boot of the vehicle processes all of the data and decides the car’s actions in real time. 

The launch of the robotic taxi service has been long trailed, with a source telling the Daily Mail in November: ‘London has been our focus for some time. We are launching sooner in the UK than people think.

‘There are still some regulatory hurdles to get around but we’re very close to getting a deal.

‘London will be first, then major cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Edinburgh.’

Once launched, customers will be able to hail the cabs through an app, although airport drop-offs will initially not be available.

Prices will be ‘premium’ but competitive, the firm has said, with rates rising during periods of high demand similarly to existing taxi firms such as Uber. 

On Wednesday Mr Loewenstein set out the timeline at ​a briefing in London. The ‍firm had previously said the launch was ​due in 2026.

The British government, which has said that it is keen to position the UK as a leader in autonomous vehicle technology, is working on ‍a regulatory ‍framework to ensure it can be rolled out safely on British roads.

Local Transport Minister Lilian Greenwood said: ‘We’re supporting Waymo and other operators through our passenger pilots, and pro-innovation regulations to make self-driving cars a reality on British roads.’ 

She added: ‘We know that unlike human drivers, automated vehicles don’t get tired, don’t get distracted, and don’t drive under the influence – making them likely to be safer than their human counterparts.

‘But this means that each and every self-driving vehicle deployed on our roads must meet strict safety and security standards, including protection from hacking and cyber threats.’

Waymo has long emphasised the safety of its fleet, but several recent incidents have raised concerns in the US and further afield.

Some of its vehicles have been seen illegally passing American school buses as they stopped to allow children on and off, with 19 incidents recorded in the Austin Independent School District alone.

The district asked Waymo to pull its cars from the road during pickup and drop-off times in response, and the firm says it has since installed a software update to fix the issue. 

Nevertheless, the US National Transportation Safety Board has launched a probe into the issue.

And in October a Waymo was responsible for killing a local cat in San Francisco.

The vehicle had stopped to pick up passengers when, according to the firm, tabby KitKat darted underneath it as it pulled away. 

A spokesperson for the firm said: ‘We send our deepest sympathies to the cat’s owner and to the community who loved him, and we have made a donation to a local animal rights organisation.’ 

Some passengers in the US have also reported becoming stuck inside the vehicles, while during a power outage in San Francisco in December, the cars simply ground to a halt as they did not know how to react at intersections when traffic lights stopped working. 

The firm maintains its fleet is safer than human drivers, claiming its cars are involved in 91 percent fewer crashes which result in serious injuries. 

The British government estimates that the sector could create 38,000 jobs and unlock the potential of an industry estimated to be worth up to £42 billion to the UK economy by 2035.

Already the firm says it is providing more than 250,000 fully autonomous trips in LA per week, and hit 10 million lifetime trips in May. 

It has been helped by having full access to Google Maps from parent company Alphabet. 

Waymo’s expansion plans also come at a time when artificial intelligence has ⁠heated up investor interest and amid tough competition in the market, with Uber-backed startup Wayve expected to launch in London this year.

Its major competitor Tesla, led by billionaire Elon Musk, has predicted millions of ‍its robotaxis will be ⁠on the roads by the end of 2026. The electric-vehicle maker deployed its first-ever driverless cabs in the United States last June.

Chinese company Baidu and Jeff ‘Amazon’ Bezos’ Zoox are also exploring driverless taxi options.