Waymo and Moove have announced that they are to extend their partnership to bring autonomous ride hailing to London. Over the coming months, the companies plan to lay the groundwork for Waymo’s autonomous ride hailing, with Moove acting as fleet operations partner, and are engaging with local and national leaders to secure the necessary permissions for a commercial ride hailing service in the UK capital.
“We’re thrilled to bring the reliability, safety and magic of Waymo to Londoners,” said Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana. “Waymo is making roads safer and transportation more accessible where we operate. We’ve demonstrated how to responsibly scale fully autonomous ride hailing, and we can’t wait to expand the benefits of our technology to the United Kingdom. ”
“We’re excited by a future where Waymo’s safe and reliable autonomous technology is available in London, transforming how the capital moves,” said Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO of Moove. “This partnership represents a major step forward for urban mobility, bringing world-class innovation to one of the world’s greatest cities. For Londoners, this marks the beginning of a new era, one where safe, efficient, and sustainable travel becomes part of everyday life.”
“I’m delighted that Waymo intends to bring their services to London next year, under our proposed piloting scheme,” commented secretary of state for transport Heidi Alexander. “Boosting the AV sector will increase accessible transportation options alongside bringing jobs, investment and opportunities to the UK. Cutting-edge investment like this will help us deliver our mission to be world leaders in new technology and spearhead national renewal that delivers real change in our communities.”
Prof Siddartha Khastgir, director of Pave UK, noted, “We welcome Waymo’s announcement on planning to bring their robotaxis to London’s roads next year as part of the UK automated vehicle piloting scheme. This is a vote of confidence in the strength of the UK’s self-driving ecosystem and helps realize the potential societal benefits of this technology.
“To enable public trust and acceptance of self-driving technology and the pilots, safety is non-negotiable. We urge the government to prioritize the work on defining quantifiable and measurable safety principles for self-driving vehicles being ‘as safe as a careful and competent human driver.’ This will help guide Waymo and other technology developers to develop and meet the safety benchmark for the UK before deploying their products on our roads.”
“The planned introduction of Waymo in the UK represents the potential for the dawn of a new era in independent mobility options for blind and partially sighted people,” added Robin Spinks, head of inclusive design at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). “As someone who’s been severely sight impaired since birth, I’ve long hoped for the day when technology can safely enable spontaneous autonomous travel. Autonomous vehicles systems should be accessible to everyone and we’re working with the community and our industry partners to ensure that the rollout of this technology prioritizes the safety and diverse needs of riders and pedestrians.”
“Autonomous vehicles, such as Waymo, hold the potential to significantly improve road safety because, quite simply, the human driver is removed,” said James Gibson, executive director of Road Safety GB. “The data shows that the Waymo vehicles have performed far safer compared to human drivers across more than 100 million autonomous miles. Rolling out autonomous vehicles in a progressive yet measured way will be the best approach. The road safety profession and wider society should embrace it. It could lead to a future that our vision zero aspirations envision.”
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