The government appears to be backing autonomous vehicles, and Uber is ready to go, but there could be major problems in setting up a licensed autonomous taxi service in the UK. Mark Bursa reports

Uber has announced it will start trialing fully autonomous taxis in London next spring. The announcement follows new UK government rules about driverless cars, which seek to bring to market small “autonomous bus and taxi-like” commercial services on to the roads earlier than the original target of the second half of 2027.

The Uber cars will be driven using artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Wayve, which has been testing the technology in London with human oversight. Uber confirmed that the cars will still have to carry a “safety” driver, as the scope of the new legislation does not yet extend to allowing full autonomy.

Indeed, Uber has not yet said whether or not the trial will include vehicles that will be available for customers to use. Uber has previously said it intends to add them as a regular option via its UK app as soon as legislation allows.

Alex Zelubowski, Uber's UK lead for autonomous mobility & delivery, said:

“I firmly believe Uber offers the most compelling path to bring autonomy to the market. It’s exciting to see the UK’s leadership in the space. I’m looking forward to working with partners across government, industry, and the technology sector to bring AVs to the UK in a thoughtful and safe way.”

The Department for Transport says the AV industry could create 38,000 jobs and add £42 billion to the UK economy by 2035. These jobs are expected to be focused in technology development and manufacturing – and do not factor in the loss of jobs among the UK’s 400,000 taxi and private hire drivers.

Trade unions share these concerns, and the taxi industry fears that the loss of driving jobs will not be compensated by new employment opportunities – including IT relating to AV services, or more likely, car cleaning and preparation.

GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast recently told the BBC that driverless cars and taxis would have “significant social implications” on employment if thousands of drivers were to lose their jobs.

The Government says it will work closely with industry stakeholders to ensure that the transition takes into account the livelihoods of those in driving-based professions. The Department for Transport said it was preparing secondary legislation to implement the Act, and discussions with taxi, bus, and private hire groups are part of that process.

There could be other problems too. Transport for London has claimed that current AV proposals would not be classed as either taxis or private hire vehicles, meaning they would fall outside existing regulatory frameworks and might have to have a different classification altogether. This could potentially undermine existing standards applied to licensed services.

Christina Calderato, TfL director of transport strategy and policy, said any deployment of autonomous vehicles must contribute to Vision Zero, the policy targeting the elimination of deaths and serious injuries on London’s roads. Calderato confirmed that TfL is working with government and private operators, including Uber, to understand how AVs can be integrated safely and effectively.

Calderato said: “These would not be taxi or PHV services and so they are different offerings and the public can expect different things from them. The AV offering as we understand at the moment would be outside of that kind of taxi or bus regulation.”

Helen Chapman, TfL’s director of licensing, regulation and charging, suggested AV operations may require some kind of permit, but admitted nothing could be done until the government passes legislation. The issue of accessibility also needs to be addressed, as there is nothing in the latest rules about making the AVs accessible to disabled users.

The Government is maintaining that safety is a key driver behind the adoption of the technology. Lilian Greenwood, parliamentary under-secretary at the Department for Transport, told the Commons that the benefits of AV include “reducing human error, which causes nearly 9 in 10 road collisions”.

However, experience in the US, where a number of autonomous taxi schemes are already in operation, show that there are still considerable issues in terms of safety. Tesla last month launched its first “Robotaxis” in Austin, Texas. These were not purpose-designed vehicles (as displayed last year) but appeared to be standard Tesla Model Ys, with a safety driver in the passenger seat.

But the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is already investigating the Tesla self-driving taxis after seeing videos showing them braking suddenly or going straight through an intersection from a turning lane and driving down the wrong side of the road.

Online Videos also show the ‘safety driver’ having to intervene in order to stop the Tesla AV hitting a reversing truck, while road safety groups set up a trap involving a school bus and a dummy child. The car did not recognise the danger and hit the dummy, driving on without stopping.

Uber also launched an AV service in Austin, Texas in March, with driverless vehicles working for up to 20 hours per day, seven days per week. Customers can choose whether to take a robotaxi with no difference in fare. Uber has not reported any major safety incidents, though its vehicles have considerably more sophisticated technology including LiDAR, compared to the Tesla cars, which just use cameras, and have come in for widespread criticism as a result.

One thing AV taxis don’t seem to be doing is bringing down the price of travel. Data aggregator Obi analysed roughly 90,000 journeys from ride-hailiers Uber and Lyft, and AV taxi operator Waymo between March 25 and April 25 in San Francisco.

The survey found that riding with Waymo was nearly always more expensive than using a human-driven Uber or Lyft. After comparing estimated arrival times, prices, and routes, Obi found that Waymo averaged $20.43 per ride, while Uber clocked in at $15.58 and Lyft at $14.44. The increase was worse at peak hours, when a Waymo ride cost $11 more than Lyft and almost $9.50 more than Uber.

New technology inevitably gains interest, but the road to usable, affordable and beneficial autonomous taxis seems to be long and fraught with difficulties.