Autonomous taxis are coming to London. This is the first city in Europe where driverless taxis will operate

Autonomous taxis will appear on the streets of London next year, the American company Waymo announced on Wednesday. Thus, the British capital will become the first city in Europe where driverless taxis will operate.

Waymo, which is a subsidiary of the Alphabet holding, which is, among others, owner of Google, said that its cars are on their way to London and in the coming weeks they will start driving on the city's streets with “trained specialists”, i.e. safety drivers, at the wheel. She added that she is working with the Ministry of Transport and the public company Transport for London (TfL) to obtain the necessary permits to offer fully autonomous journeys in 2026.

Autonomous taxis operated by Waymo already operate in five US cities – Phoenix, Arizona; San Francisco and Los Angeles, California; Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. The company has already announced that they will appear in four more next year, including in Washington, and currently tests are underway in the capital of Japan – Tokyo.

According to Waymo, since launching its service in Phoenix in 2020, its autonomous taxis have completed more than 10 million passenger trips in the U.S., and currently do more than 250,000. courses per week. Although American authorities have recorded over 1,200 accidents or collisions involving Waymo's autonomous taxis, the company assures that their number per kilometers traveled is 80% lower than in the case of the same number of collisions. lower than in the case of cars driven by people.

A few months ago, Uber and the British company Wayve announced their own plans to start testing autonomous taxis in London. (PAP)

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