LONDON — Taxi companies Uber and Lyft plan to introduce robotaxi services in London next year under a separate partnership with Chinese tech giant Baidu, the companies said on Monday.
Uber said it is teaming up with Baidu's autonomous vehicle service Apollo Go to take part in a pilot program for self-driving taxi services that the British government plans to launch next year.
Testing is expected to begin in the first half of 2026, both companies said in social media posts.
Lyft is also partnering with Baidu on a robotaxi trial using Apollo Go RT6 vehicles, which are “specifically built for ridesharing,” CEO David Richer said in a post on X.
“We plan to begin testing our initial fleet of dozens of vehicles next year, pending regulatory approval,” Richer said. The company “plans to scale to hundreds,” he added.
The UK is becoming the forefront of the global rollout of driverless taxi services after the government decided to speed up its pilot program over the summer by pushing back the start date by a year.
Baidu competes with rivals including Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, which said in October it plans to take part in trials in the UK as part of its global expansion.
WaveThe British startup, which is developing its own artificial intelligence technology for self-driving cars, has also teamed up with Uber to provide a robotaxi service in the British capital.
