A glance down a busy London street in 2026 might show something people here rarely see today: a small fleet of driverless taxis, their occupants reading or scrolling while the vehicle navigates itself through the afternoon crush.
That image moved a step closer to reality on Monday, when Baidu said it would bring its Apollo Go robotaxis to London in partnership with Uber and Lyft, with trials expected to begin in the first half of 2026 pending regulator sign-off. Lyft’s CEO David Risher said the company expects to start with dozens of vehicles and — if regulators agree — scale to hundreds. Uber said its first pilot will also launch in the first half of 2026 and framed the move as part of accelerating Britain’s leadership in the “future of mobility.”
What companies are planning
Baidu supplies the autonomous driving technology and the Apollo Go service, which the company says already operates in more than 20 cities and logs hundreds of thousands of weekly trips. Under the new arrangements, Uber and Lyft would offer those driverless rides through their apps in central London initially, turning familiar ride-hail interfaces into portals for robotaxi booking.
Waymo — Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle arm — is also preparing tests and limited public service in the U.K. in 2026, making London and the wider country a crowded testing ground for competing robotaxi programs.
Why London (and the UK) is attractive
The British government in June moved to speed up rules to allow small-scale pilots of autonomous “bus- and taxi-like” services starting in spring 2026. London’s transport plans, including a Vision Zero aim to eliminate serious road injuries and deaths by 2041, make the city a natural showcase for technologies that promise safer, more consistent driving behavior.
For Baidu, the push is part of a broader global expansion — the firm has been running pilots beyond China, in places such as Dubai and parts of Europe — and partnering with established mobility platforms is a fast route to scale.
Safety, trust and the sceptics
Not everyone greets the prospect with enthusiasm. Public scepticism about riding in a car without a human behind the wheel remains high: polls cited in recent coverage showed a majority of UK respondents uneasy about driverless taxis, and many saying they would choose human-driven cabs if price and convenience were equal.
Academics urge caution. Jack Stilgoe, a science and technology policy professor, has pointed out that there’s a large gap between running a handful of test vehicles and operating a scaled, reliable transport network. Practical problems — from software glitches to unusual weather and power outages — have tripped up services elsewhere. In one recent example, Waymo paused some operations in San Francisco after vehicles failed during a power cut.
Beyond safety, critics raise questions about privacy, the potential for added congestion (zero-occupancy robotaxis roaming for repositioning are a worry), and who bears responsibility when systems fail.
The regulatory and technical hurdles
UK pilots will need explicit regulatory approval. Regulators will be testing not just whether the vehicles can drive safely, but how they interact with pedestrians, cyclists and unpredictable urban traffic. Mapping and real-time localisation will be crucial — city streets demand far denser, more up-to-the-second data than highways. Advances in navigation and conversational mapping assistants show how important software improvements are likely to be for consumer acceptance and route reliability; these tools are already changing how people and machines find their way around cities (Google Maps conversational AI is one example of that broader trend).
Ethical and auditing frameworks will matter too. Independent benchmarks and bias-audit approaches — like initiatives to certify fairness and privacy in computer vision systems — are increasingly relevant when automated systems make decisions that affect safety and equity on public roads (Sony's FHIBE ethical benchmark illustrates the kind of guardrails experts want to see more of).
Business stakes and the market signal
Markets noticed the news: shares of Baidu and ride-hail firms ticked higher after the announcements, reflecting investor appetite for mobility businesses that can reduce labor costs and open new revenue lines. For Uber and Lyft, autonomous fleets could be a way to cut driver fees and improve margins — if the technology proves reliable and regulators permit widespread service.
Competition will be stiff. Baidu, Waymo, and other players are racing for first-mover advantages in multiple cities worldwide. Which approach — vertically integrated operators like Waymo or partnerships with existing platforms like Uber and Lyft — proves most scalable will shape the market for years.
A cautious road ahead
If pilots begin in spring and early summer 2026 as planned, Londoners will get an early look at how well robotaxis integrate with dense urban life. The trials will be measured against safety metrics, congestion impacts, and public sentiment. Success will mean more deployments; messy, headline-grabbing failures will hand sceptics ammunition and likely slow broader rollouts.
This is not just a tech story. It's a test of public policy, urban planning, and trust. The cars may be driverless; the choices about how they’re used and regulated are very much human.