Driverless 'robotaxis' will begin accepting fares in London by the end of next year, following the passage of the Automated Vehicles Act in 2024. The UK government is working to approve self-driving taxis, with companies like Wayve, in partnership with Uber, alongside US giant Waymo and Chinese firm Baidu, preparing to launch. London's narrow roads, medieval street plan, and high numbers of pedestrians and cyclists present a significant challenge compared to cities like San Francisco.
Wayve CEO Alex Kendall demonstrated the technology in an electric Ford Mustang in King's Cross. The car handled an unprotected turn, waiting for a gap in traffic before pulling out smoothly. Kendall explained that the AI learns from experience rather than following pre-programmed rules: 'We don't tell the car what it should do; it learns the body language.' The car correctly slowed for a pedestrian with a walking stick at a zebra crossing and understood when another driver flashed their lights to let it go first.
Wayve's AI uses end-to-end learning, a single neural network that makes decisions, unlike earlier autonomous vehicles that broke driving into separate components. The company has driven over 7 million miles autonomously across 500 cities in Europe, Japan, and North America. Its cars are indistinguishable from ordinary vehicles except for a roof-mounted bar containing cameras and radar, though future models may have built-in sensors.
Kendall, a 33-year-old from Christchurch, New Zealand, earned a PhD in AI and machine learning from the University of Cambridge in 2014, where he developed his system. Riding in the self-driving car was initially terrifying but quickly became unremarkable, with the author concluding that Wayve is a better driver than most humans.
