Waymo's self-driving cars face their toughest test yet: London
Google sibling takes on the Big Smoke – with a human hand on the wheel
Waymo has started letting its software take the wheel on London streets, with trained specialists on standby as it gradually accelerates toward a fully driverless ride-hailing launch.
The Alphabet-owned biz began putting vehicles on London streets in October, initially with a human driver in control, as it started teaching its software how to cope with a city that treats road rules more like suggestions.
It's now shifting into a phase where the system is actively handling the driving while a trained operator sits ready to intervene. The move is being framed as a step toward a commercial robotaxi service, though for now the "autonomous" part still comes with a safety net.
London is the real test. There are none of the wide, predictable US roads here – just cramped streets, messy junctions, cyclists threading the needle, and pedestrians crossing whenever it suits them. If the system survives that, it might survive anything.
Waymo is still very much in learning mode. The cars are mapping streets, observing behavior, and feeding data back into the system, which is then hammered in simulation to replay everything from the mundane to the mildly terrifying. The goal is to build a model that doesn't just follow rules, but can deal with the fact that plenty of road users don't.
- Waymo launching China-made van that won't fail in rain, snow, or gloom of night
- Uber and Lyft rolling Baidu robotaxis into London next year
- Musk distracts from struggling car biz with fantastical promise to make 1 million humanoid robots a year
- California cops confused after trying to give ticket to self-driving car
It is drawing on experience from US deployments, where it already runs driverless services in cities including Phoenix and San Francisco. London's a different job, and Waymo knows it.
The company says it's building out a local team and lining up partners to support operations in the UK, including plans for service hubs across London.
There's also a regulatory angle lurking just beneath the surface. The UK is still working through how and when fully autonomous vehicles will be allowed on public roads. By showing progress now, Waymo is effectively making the case that it should be first in line when the green light eventually comes.
The robotaxi future is inching closer, but in London at least, it's arriving with a chaperone. ®
