Uber has started offering supervised autonomous rides in London in partnership with UK autonomous driving firm Wayve.

From last week, Londoners requesting an UberX, Uber Electric or Uber Comfort may be matched with a Wayve ride at no extra cost, with upfront fares shown in-app.

Riders will travel in an all-electric Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicle equipped with the Wayve AI Driver, as well as surround sensors. The in-vehicle experience, designed by Uber, features an interactive screen available in 64 languages where riders can start their trip and view the vehicle’s planned path.

On every trip, riders will have the option to accept or switch to a non-AV ride before the car arrives. Once the Wayve vehicle arrives, riders can unlock the doors and start the trip, all from their Uber app. Riders can travel anywhere within London, apart from airports.

During the initial launch phase, a safety driver will be ready to take over at any time.

“We’re proud to introduce the Wayve AI Driver to the public for the first time right here in London, our home city and one of the most complex driving environments in the world,” said Alex Kendall, CEO of Wayve. “Autonomous driving technology will complement the city’s rich transport network, and we’re excited for Londoners to experience it first as we begin our global rollout with Uber.”

Sarfraz Maredia from Uber added: “We’re delighted to bring autonomous rides to Uber riders in London for the very first time, powered by Wayve, a homegrown British success story. London is a world-class hub for transportation innovation and this launch is a major milestone in scaling safe, accessible AV technology in a city with some of the world’s most complex roads.”

Headquartered and founded in London, Wayve has built and trained its AI technology on the capital’s roads since 2018. Wayve’s approach uses an AI driver that learns from experience, allowing it to scale and adapt to complex environments without relying on traditional HD maps or hand-coded rules.

This launch is part of Uber and Wayve’s partnership (iotm2mcouncil.org/iot-library/news/connected-transportation-news/wayve-uber-partner-on-automated-driving/), which included an investment to put Wayve-powered vehicles on the Uber network in 12 markets around the world, beginning with London. Wayve’s autonomous driving technology is agnostic to vehicle platforms and sensor configurations, enabling it to scale quickly.

“This is a major milestone for the future of transport in London, as British innovation brings this technology onto our roads and gives passengers more choice,” said the UK government’s transport secretary Heidi Alexander. “As this technology develops, we want to support new opportunities for investment and skills, while recognising the important role that those working in the sector today will continue to play. Today’s announcement further cements Wayve’s status as a technology trailblazer here in the UK, and highlights how British innovation is helping drive investment and growth in transport.”

As part of the future service in London and other global markets, Wayve (wayve.ai) and Uber (www.uber.com) will also introduce riders to the Nissan Leaf vehicle, powered by the Wayve AI Driver using Nvidia Drive Hyperion. This will start in Tokyo later this year before coming to the UK.