Uber and Lyft to trial Chinese ‘Robotaxis’ on UK roads from 2026 – Tech Digest

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Chinese robotaxis are coming to London. Uber and Lyft have announced partnerships with Baidu to trial autonomous vehicles in the UK starting in 2026.

The companies are currently seeking regulatory approval to deploy Baidu’s “Apollo Go”  driverless fleet (pictured above). Lyft plans to start with dozens of vehicles, with the intent to scale to hundreds. Uber is also accelerating its timeline to meet new government frameworks allowing for autonomous commercial pilots.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described the announcement as a “vote of confidence” in the UK’s self-driving strategy. The government expects pilot schemes to begin carrying passengers by spring 2026.

Risks and Dangers

Despite official optimism, experts warn of significant dangers associated with driverless technology. Safety remains the most immediate concern. Recent high-profile failures in the industry have seen autonomous vehicles trap passengers inside, cause accidents, or trigger massive traffic jams.

Technical reliability is another major hurdle. In San Francisco, a Waymo robotaxi service was recently suspended after a power outage caused vehicles to stop working, blocking streets. Critics argue that relying on technology that can be paralyzed by local infrastructure failures is a public safety risk.

Professor Jack Stilgoe of University College London warned that robotaxis could worsen urban congestion. He noted that “zero-occupancy” vehicles, autonomous cars driving without passengers, could flood city centres. “When it comes to traffic, the only thing worse than a single-occupancy car is a zero-occupancy one,” he told the BBC.

There are also growing concerns regarding data privacy and the difficulty of scaling technology. Stilgoe noted a “big difference” between testing a few vehicles in a “laboratory” setting and integrating them into a complex public transport system.

Public trust in the technology is also remarkably low. A recent YouGov poll found that 60% of UK adults would not feel comfortable riding in a driverless taxi under any circumstances. Even if prices and convenience were identical, 85% of respondents said they would still choose a human driver over an AI-controlled vehicle.

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