London moves closer to launching its first robotaxi service as Waymo starts testing

Waymo has begun testing its self-driving vehicles on public roads in London as it prepares to launch a commercial robotaxi service in the city later this year.

The Alphabet-owned company has been preparing for this milestone for several months. Back in October, Waymo said it would begin operating on London’s public roads. In the initial phase, Waymo employees drove the vehicles manually to map the city before transitioning into autonomous testing. At present, the fleet consists of around 100 all-electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicles equipped with Waymo’s self-driving system, each with a human safety operator seated behind the wheel. According to the company, testing is currently taking place across a 100-square-mile area of the city.

Before full autonomous operations can begin, the U.K. government still needs to finalise regulations for its trial program. Waymo stated that it will continue working closely with regulators to ensure the service can eventually reach a wide range of London users.

“Core driving AI generalising very well,” Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the start of testing. “Autonomous testing now underway with specialists behind the wheel as we master local nuances and validate performance on UK roads — a key step toward rider-only deployment.”

In a separate update, Waymo said it is investing in the U.K. by hiring local talent and establishing multiple autonomous vehicle service centres across London. The company also noted that it is coordinating with emergency services as it builds the groundwork to expand its operations in Europe.

Following its usual rollout strategy, Waymo is expected to eventually move to fully driverless testing, after which it will allow employees to use the service before opening it up to the public. However, the timeline for a full launch in 2026 depends on the U.K. government completing its approval process.

Waymo already has an established presence in the U.K. In 2019, it acquired Latent Logic, a startup spun out of the University of Oxford that focuses on imitation learning to improve self-driving simulations. As part of that acquisition, Waymo launched an engineering hub in Oxford.

The company has previously stated that it operates more than 3,000 robotaxis globally. Documents submitted in January to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration support those numbers. However, the fleet may have grown further with the addition of a newer minivan-style vehicle developed by Zeekr.

Waymo’s robotaxis are currently deployed across 11 cities where it runs commercial services, including Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area. It is also continuing testing and preparing launches in additional markets.

London could become Waymo’s first international commercial market, although the company is also conducting tests in Tokyo. Competition is expected in both regions. U.K.-based autonomous driving startup Wayve, along with Uber, is also planning to roll out a fully driverless robotaxi service in London. Additionally, Wayve, Uber, and Nissan signed an agreement in March to launch a pilot program in Tokyo by late 2026.