More and more companies are moving from experiments to real launches.
Uber Technologies and Lyft have separately agreed to collaborate with China's Baidu to test driverless taxis in the UK, Bloomberg reports. The project is developing quite actively, as there is fierce competition in the market for autonomous passenger transport.
According to Uber, the pilot program using Baidu Apollo Go RT6 robotaxis will launch in London in the first half of 2026. It is expected that the commercial service in the British capital could be launched by the end of the same year.
Lyft, for its part, also plans to begin trials in the UK in 2026. The tests are expected to involve several dozen similar vehicles, pending regulatory approval. This was announced by Lyft CEO David Risher in a post on the social network X.
The global robotaxi market is entering a phase of rapid growth. More and more companies are moving from experiments to real launches, and the pace of these processes is noticeably accelerating. Leading the charge are Chinese developers Baidu and WeRide, as well as American Waymo, which is part of Alphabet.
Uber and WeRide have already deployed driverless taxis on the streets of Abu Dhabi and are now preparing to expand their presence in other Middle Eastern countries. Baidu, for its part, is conducting trials in several countries — in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Switzerland, gradually expanding the geography of its projects.
Waymo has also joined this movement. This month, the company began testing autonomous vehicles in London, taking another step towards entering the European market.
For Uber, this course has become a conscious decision. In 2020, the company abandoned its own developments in the field of autonomous driving and switched to working with external partners — robotaxi operators. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated in a recent interview with Bloomberg Television that Uber intends to launch driverless services in more than ten countries by the end of next year.
Other market players are following the same path. Lyft has already reached an agreement with Baidu to bring robotaxis to the European market. Meanwhile, the Grab service, operating in Southeast Asian countries, is building partnerships with Chinese developers WeRide and Momenta.
However, the economic return from robotaxis remains in question. Public companies Pony AI and WeRide continue to operate at a loss even after going public and attracting additional capital.
