ROBOTAXIS will soon be a common sight in some UK cities after two firms announced they were launching new trials.
Uber and Lyft plan to bring driverless cars to the streets next year in separate partnerships with a Chinese tech giant.
Uber said it was teaming up with Baidu’s Apollo Go driverless service to take part in a pilot programme.
The trial is part of the UK Government’s plan to introduce the cars to Brits.
In a separate move, Lyft is also planning to take part in the trials with Baidu.
Testing is expected to start in the first half of 2026, the two companies said in social media posts.
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In a post on X, David Risher, the chief executive of Lyft, said the firm was partnering with Baidu for the robotaxi trials using Apollo Go RT6 vehicles.
These driverless cars are “purpose-built for rideshare”, said Mr Risher
He added: “We expect to start testing our initial fleet with dozens of vehicles next year – pending regulatory approval.”
The company, he said, “plans to scale to hundreds from there”.
The UK is emerging as a major player in the global roll out of self-driving taxi services.
This comes after Keir Starmer’s Government decided over the summer to speed up its pilot programme by moving the start date up by a year.
Baidu is racing against rivals including Waymo, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, which said in October it plans to take part in the UK trials as part of its global expansion.
