Campaigners and private-hire drivers have protested outside the headquarters of autonomous vehicle company Wayve, calling for London’s robotaxi rollout to be curbed.
Around 15 demonstrators gathered outside Wayve’s offices in King’s Cross on Saturday, raising concerns about safety, congestion and the impact on jobs.
Abdurzak Hadi, a private hire driver and member of the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU), said he was “worried that I’ll be forced to compete with a machine that can work 24 hours”.
He called on TfL to suspend licences for driverless vehicles until there was greater clarity about how the technology would be introduced.
“I think we should all be worried,” said Florentina Ghiuzan, an Uber driver from Essex. “I was shocked TfL approved it so soon. I knew change would come. But I thought it would come with a solution for us.”
Union and political pressure
The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has called on TfL to halt the rollout, following a London Assembly Transport Committee report that concluded there was not yet sufficient evidence to welcome autonomous passenger services.
“As it stands, we currently have not heard sufficient evidence to persuade us that London should welcome autonomous passenger services,” the 66-page report concluded.
Google’s Waymo, British startup Wayve, and Chinese tech giant Baidu are among those gearing up to bring autonomous passenger services to London. Waymo has already been testing its cars in the capital.
London has around 105,000 licensed private hire drivers, many of whom fear for their livelihoods.
Wayve said it was taking a phased approach with Uber and working with TfL to ensure future services were introduced responsibly.
For more on London’s transport, see our coverage of Thameslink disruption and M25 closures.
