Uber and its partner Wayve have obtained private hire vehicle licences from Transport for London to operate autonomous Ford Mustang Mach-E electric vehicles in the British capital, making London the first city worldwide to use Wayve's technology for commercial rides. A human driver will initially sit behind the wheel, with passenger rides expected to launch later this summer.
The milestone comes as Uber plans to invest more than $10 billion to expand its robotaxi network, aiming to deploy roughly 120,000 driverless vehicles in the coming years. The company, which posted a record $2.8 billion in free cash flow last quarter, seeks to become the first to launch robotaxi services outside the United States, ahead of rivals Tesla and Waymo.
Waymo, which announced plans to enter the London market this year, currently operates nearly 4,000 driverless vehicles across 15 U.S. cities, completing more than 500,000 paid passenger trips per week. Wayve, founded in 2017 by two University of Cambridge PhD students, now positions itself as a key challenger in the autonomous vehicle sector.