A Waymo robotaxi climbs a hill in San Francisco.
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Waymo plans to start offering paid robot rides in London next year, without a human back-up driver, as the Alphabet unit tries to establish itself as a global leader in self-driving.
The Mountain View, California-based company will begin operating a fleet of Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs in the British capital sometime in 2026, which commuters can hail through the Waymo app. Moove.ioan African mobility fintech company, will handle fleet maintenance and service in London, just as it does in Phoenix and, soon, Miami, Waymo said today.
The news comes as the robotaxi leader prepares to take its services beyond Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta to Miami, Washington, DC, Dallas, Denver, Nashville and New York. Waymo, which provides hundreds of thousands of paid rides per week, has also been testing in Tokyo, but has yet to announce a launch date.
In a blog post, co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana highlighted Waymo’s safety record, based on years of testing and service in the US. The company says its robots are involved in “five times fewer injury-related accidents” and far fewer collisions with pedestrians resulting in injuries compared to human drivers. “We’ve shown how to responsibly scale fully autonomous driving-hail,” he said.
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Waymo is at an inflection point, trying to dramatically scale its services after 16 years of technical development. Its London expansion could also be a big development for Moove. Headquartered in Dubai, it operates 39,000 vehicles in 29 cities around the world. The company, which is partly owned by Uber, started by providing vehicles to drivers who finance them with revenue from rides. Now it wants to build one of the largest ride-share fleets in the world – including robotaxis. Bloomberg reported in July that Moove was raising $1.2 billion in part to buy a Waymo fleet to expand operations in the US
“We’re excited for a future where Waymo’s safe and reliable autonomous technology will be available in London, transforming the way the capital gets around,” Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO of Moove, said via email. “This partnership represents a major step forward for urban mobility, bringing world-class innovation to one of the world’s greatest cities.”
Waymo’s launch in London comes as no surprise. Last month, media reports he said the company had started hiring local staff there. In June, the UK government approved the trial of autonomous vehicles without safety drivers. Wayve, a London-based competitor to Waymo, is is testing its driverless vehicles there in partnership with Uber.
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