Wayve, a British embodied intelligence technology company, announced today local time that it has partnered with Uber to launch the UK’s first supervised robotaxi service in London. This is also Wayve’s first commercial deployment.
The first 15 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles equipped with safety operators will serve areas across London, excluding airports. Their in-vehicle interactive screens support 64 languages. Passengers do not need to pay a tip.
Wayve CEO and co-founder Alex Kendall said:
We are proud to demonstrate the Wayve AI Driver to the public for the first time here in our home city of London, one of the most complex driving environments in the world. Autonomous driving technology will complement the city’s well-established transport network, and as we begin our global rollout with Uber, we are excited for Londoners to be the first to experience this technology.
According to a Bloomberg report, the two companies have adopted a commercial partnership model under which Uber pays Wayve for its AI Driver software based on usage. Robotaxi companies such as Wayve still need to complete a series of licensing procedures before they can provide unsupervised robotaxi services in London, UK.
In another report, Bloomberg noted that Uber exited the two African markets of Nigeria and Uganda as part of its global 10% workforce reduction.