Chinese Robotaxis Coming to UK: Uber and Lyft's 2026 Plans
Thursday, 2025/12/25141 words2 minutes407 reads
Ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft have announced plans to introduce Chinese robotaxis to UK roads by 2026. They are partnering with Baidu, a Chinese tech company, to bring this autonomous vehicle technology to Britain.
Baidu's Apollo Go driverless taxi service has already been operating successfully in several cities, primarily in China. The service has completed millions of rides without human drivers, demonstrating its reliability.
While the UK government sees this as a positive step towards self-driving technology, there are still concerns about safety. Both Uber and Lyft will need to obtain approval from regulators before they can begin testing these autonomous vehicles in London.
The companies hope that if approved, they can start with a small fleet of vehicles and gradually increase the number. However, some experts caution that scaling up self-driving technology is not as simple as other digital innovations.
