LONDON: Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft plan to bring robotaxi services to London next year in separate partnerships with Chinese tech giant Baidu, the companies said Dec 22.
Uber said it's teaming up with Baidu's Apollo Go autonomous vehicle service to take part in a pilot program for self-driving taxi services that the British government is planning for next year.
Testing is expected to start in the first half of 2026, the two companies said in social media posts.
Lyft is also partnering with Baidu for the robotaxi trials using Apollo Go RT6 vehicles that are "purpose-built for rideshare," CEO David Risher said in a post on X.
"We expect to start testing our initial fleet with dozens of vehicles next year - pending regulatory approval," Risher said. The company "plans to scale to hundreds from there,” he added.
Britain is emerging as a frontline for the global rollout of self-driving taxi services after the government decided over the summer to speed up its pilot program by moving the start date up by a year.
Baidu is racing against rivals including Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, which said in October it plans to take part in the UK trials as part of its global expansion.
Wayve, a UK homegrown startup that's developing its own artificial intelligence technology for self-driving cars, has also teamed up with Uber to bring robotaxi service to the British capital. – AP
