Transport for London (TfL) has granted Wayve a set of Private Hire Vehicle licences, enabling the introduction of a number of the company’s autonomous all-electric Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles.
The grant forms part of the company’s recently announced partnership with Uber to bring autonomous ride services to London, and will see the cars, which are equipped with Wayve AI Driver, surround cameras and radar enter trials on streets throughout the capital.
Each vehicle has been fully inspected by TfL, who has since confirmed that the fleet meets all of its policy and safety standards.
Licensing of the vehicles completes the ‘triple-lock’ requirement for Private Hire trips, which state that the operator, driver and vehicle must all hold licences with the same licensing authority. Trips will take place under the Government’s AV Trialling Code of Practice, as well as Uber’s TfL Private Hire Operator license.
Wayve vehicles are designed to operate autonomously, and will perform all driving operations with a trained and TfL licensed private hire driver onboard to oversee the trip and provide support or take over driving if needed.
Thus far, there has been significant interest from Londoners looking to take a trip in an autonomous Wayve provided by Uber. During the last eight weeks, over 100,000 residents signed up to join Uber’s Interest List, which gives them a chance to be matched with a Wayve autonomous ride at launch.
In order to help fine-tune the finished experience and inform the future of transport within the city, select riders on the Interest List will soon be given access to Wayve rides in order to provide feedback on the experience during the lead-up to launch.
Annie Duvnjak, Global Head of Autonomous Mobility Operations at Uber, said:This licence is a key milestone in bringing autonomous rides to London on Uber. Our interest list has seen an incredible response from Londoners who are excited to experience Wayve’s British-built autonomous driving technology.
