Uber, Wayve and Waymo are set to take on robo-taxis in London

Uber customers in the UK can now join an interest list to increase their chances of being matched with a Wayve self-driving vehicle – another sign that the two companies are preparing to launch a robo-taxi service in London. When that launch happens, Uber will compete directly with Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving company that is the leading robo-taxi company in the United States.

Uber announced the list of interest on Monday in London alongside a black-branded Ford Mustang Mach-E equipped with the Wayve self-driving system. While Wayve handles self-driving vehicle technology, Uber has designed what happens inside, including how passengers interact with the car through interactive touchscreens that support 64 languages.

Uber has teased its impending robotaxi service, but has yet to provide an official date, saying only that it will launch in the coming months, pending regulatory approval. After launch, Uber customers who request a ride through the app may be matched to a Wayve vehicle, at no additional cost compared to a traditional human-driven vehicle.

Riders can increase their chances of getting a robo-taxi by going into their account settings, clicking on Rider Preferences, and selecting autonomous vehicles. If matched with a self-driving vehicle, passengers would be able to decline it and choose a human driver. Uber said the Wayve robot car will initially have a human safety operator behind the wheel before fully driverless operations begin in the future.

Meanwhile, Waymo is also on the streets of London. In April, Waymo began testing its self-driving vehicles with human safety operators. The company is testing about 100 self-driving Jaguar I-Pace cars in a 100-square-mile area of ​​the city.

The looming showdown is complicated by the existing partnership between Uber and Waymo in the US, which is already showing signs of eroding. The two companies, which were rivals in a trade secrets lawsuit, agreed to work together in 2023 when Waymo puts its self-driving vehicles on the Uber app in Phoenix. However, this partnership has been relatively limited, since Waymo allows Phoenix customers to hail a robotaxi directly through its app as well.

The duo expanded the partnership in March 2025, when Waymo agreed to put its cars on the Uber app in Austin, and later in Atlanta. In both cities, potential customers can’t request a robotaxi directly through the Waymo app, they have to use the Uber app and hope for a match.

The relationship between the two companies has continued even as they appear to be diverging in other areas. Uber has spent the past two years investing in and partnering with dozens of self-driving car companies, including Wayve.

Uber executives also took direct criticism at Waymo, which is an unorthodox way of dealing with a business partner. For example, Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli posted a video and comment on X criticizing the unsafe behavior of a Waymo robotaxi, calling it “scary.”

The ride-hailing giant has launched two new business divisions — a data unit called AV Labs, and an operations-focused unit called Uber Autonomous Solutions — that illustrate the company’s broader ambitions to gain market share in the emerging self-driving vehicle industry.

Uber has placed many bets on self-driving car companies that could compete with Waymo, most notably Wayve. In February, the UK startup raised $1.2 billion from a number of strategic backers, including Uber as a returning investor. The total increase could reach $1.5 billion thanks to another $300 million from Uber contingent on the deployment of robotaxis, starting in London.

There is one regulatory hurdle that will delay the fight against bots, at least for a while. The UK government is creating regulations for autonomous vehicles, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be going away anytime soon. The state Department of Transportation opened applications in May for companies interested in its autonomous vehicle pilot program. The department said it will take what it learned from the pilot program and apply it to developing its systems.