Hello London Your Waymo ride is arriving (waymo.com)

Waymo announced it plans to launch a fully autonomous, driverless ride‑hailing service in London in 2026, working with fleet partner Moove and continuing regulatory engagement under the UK’s proposed piloting scheme. The company already operates internationally with Jaguar Land Rover–outfitted electric I‑PACEs and engineering hubs in London and Oxford that develop large‑scale closed‑loop simulation — a core method for validating AV behavior at scale. In the U.S. Waymo’s Driver has logged over 100 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 10 million paid rides, evidence the company cites as readiness for commercial expansion. The move matters because it could reshape urban mobility, safety and accessibility in one of the world’s most complex transport ecosystems. Waymo highlights safety metrics — about five times fewer injury‑causing collisions overall and twelve times fewer pedestrian injury collisions versus human drivers — and frames the rollout as a complement to buses, bike and pedestrian networks, not a replacement. Stakeholders (government, RNIB, road‑safety groups) emphasize potential benefits for vision‑impaired riders, road‑safety targets and economic investment. Technically, London offers a testing ground for deploying simulated‑honed autonomy in mixed, dense traffic; the announcement signals continued industry momentum toward regulated, city‑scale driverless services.