Self-driving Ubers are now live on the streets of London
The UK is getting its first taste of autonomous ride sharing thanks to Uber and AI company Wayve, who have launched self-driving Ford Mustang Mach-E's – albeit with human safety monitors
The next time you book an Uber in London, it might well come with a disclaimer asking if you’d like a ride in a car that drives itself.
Autonomous Ubers, with some help from UK-based AI company Wayve, are now up and running in the nation’s capital – and there’s more to come.
This new service is derived from a partnership between the ride-sharing service and London-based Wayve, who have collaborated to offer rides in converted Ford Mustang Mach-E models that come with an AI-based virtual driver – although they will be supervised by human safety monitors initially.
The self-driving Fords are already integrated into the Uber interface, and once you book an inner-London ride as normal, an option for an autonomous service will be offered if there’s a car available nearby. If selected, the modified Mustang will arrive at your pick-up point, the doors will unlock and a trip will commence as per normal.
As part of the early pilot, the trained supervisor in the driver’s seat will take over if anything goes wrong.
London has been the UK’s epicentre of autonomous taxi development in recent years, with companies such as Wayve and Waymo using the city’s complex roads as a sort of acid test for autonomous driving software.
Compared to San Francisco or Los Angeles, which both feature wider roads and a simpler grid system, driving in London is a very different experience. However, Uber’s collaboration with Wayve could be the key to its success. The firm has been conducting real-world testing on London streets since 2018, building its virtual model around the unique challenges of the capital.
Only a limited number of autonomous Ubers will join the fleet initially, with the intention to grow in line with demand, eventually eschewing human supervisors once legislation allows for it.
But how would you feel about getting into a taxi which drives itself? Or perhaps more pertinently, how confident are you in this new technology while crossing the street or riding a bike alongside one?
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