Wayve Partners with Uber to Launch UK's First Supervised Robotaxi Service
British autonomous vehicle company Wayve has partnered with Uber to launch the UK's first supervised Robotaxi service in London. The commercial pilot features 15 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles equipped with human safety drivers, serving passengers across London outside of airport zones. This initiative represents Wayve's first commercial software deployment and marks a key milestone for autonomous ride-hailing in Europe. It also demonstrates Uber's strategy of integrating third-party self-driving AI into its platform via a usage-based payment model. Uber is paying Wayve based on AI Driver software usage, while human safety drivers remain in the vehicles because fully driverless operations still require regulatory approval in the UK. The vehicles feature interactive screens supporting 64 languages, and riders are not required to pay tips.
## BACKGROUND
Founded in 2017 by Cambridge researchers, Wayve builds autonomous vehicle systems using end-to-end deep learning and embodied AI foundation models. Unlike traditional self-driving approaches that depend heavily on hand-coded rules and high-definition 3D maps, Wayve's AI Driver learns directly from camera sensors and real-world driving data, allowing it to adapt dynamically to new cities and complex environments.