Uber Technologies Inc. announced that it will cooperate with Baidu Inc. to launch a self-driving taxi pilot project in the United Kingdom, following the steps of American self-driving technology company Waymo; the latter has launched relevant road tests in London this month to prepare for its official launch of self-driving taxi services there in 2026.
According to the plan announced by Uber on Monday, the two parties will launch RT6 self-driving taxis under Baidu's Apollo Go platform in London. The pilot project is expected to start in the first half of 2026. Uber said that relevant services are expected to be officially opened to London citizens before the end of next year.
The global implementation of self-driving taxis is accelerating, with Chinese companies Baidu, Weride Inc. and Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, all in the first echelon. Uber and WeRide have launched self-driving online ride-hailing services in Abu Dhabi and plan to expand in more cities in the Middle East; Baidu is promoting trial operations of self-driving taxis in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Switzerland and other places, with some models even canceling the steering wheel design.
In terms of self-driving strategy, Uber gave up internal self-driving technology research and development as early as 2020, and instead deployed in this field by forming alliances with a number of self-driving taxi companies. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview this month that the company plans to provide driverless travel services in more than 10 markets around the world by the end of next year.
Other online ride-hailing platforms are also taking similar cooperation routes: Lyft has reached an agreement with Baidu and plans to launch hundreds of self-driving taxi fleets in Europe starting in 2027; Southeast Asian platform Grab is partnering with Chinese companies WeRide and Momenta to promote autonomous taxi competition in markets such as Singapore. At the same time, the business prospects of self-driving taxis are still uncertain. Many listed companies, including Pony AI Inc. and WeRide, have raised funds through stock issuances, but are still losing money, and their profit paths have yet to be tested by the market.