London Will Test Self-Driving Taxis on the Streets Next Spring, the First Major European City to Do So

And while many are claiming that electric vehicles are the future of the auto industry, some are going even further by claiming that self-driving (or driverless) cars are the actual future we are looking at.

The concept has been around for some time now, and while we now have functional self-driving cars, there are still a lot of major safety issues that prevent them from being the standard on our roads.

And while such cars won’t come tomorrow or next week, London is getting ready for a potentially revolutionary change, as self-driving taxis will be tested on the streets of the British capital starting next week.

The City of London has agreed to allow self-driving taxis to appear on its streets next spring. It will be a test at that point, but if it succeeds, more and more such cars might appear on the streets of London, but also other major cities.

Uber is the main sponsor of this test and they are going to team up with Wayve to bring these self-driving taxis to the streets. A larger or even a full rollout of self-driving cars is expected to take place in 2027 when the Automated Vehicles Act fully takes effect.

And while some will most certainly be worried about this, the government is reassuring citizens that this pioneering decision will have more benefits than downsides. “The future of transport is arriving. Self-driving cars could bring jobs, investment, and the opportunity for the UK to be among the world leaders in new technology. With road safety at the heart of our pilots and legislation, we continue to take bold steps to create jobs, back British industry, and drive innovation to deliver our plan for change,” the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said.

Also, the government claims that this decision could create 38,000 new jobs and create an industry worth £42 billion by 2035, which is an amazing sum of money.

The revolutionary thing about this decision is that this will be the first time that such cars will appear on the streets without a safety driver. Tests had been done before, both around the UK and all over the world, but they usually had a safety driver inside the vehicle. Next year’s test is going to change that.

And while this certainly does look like the future, we’ll have to wait and see if the project works out, as many similar ones have failed in recent years. Good luck!

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