If you are a taxi driver or even if you sometimes call a taxi to take you to a destination you may find it of interest to read that there may soon be a driverless taxi service operating here in the UK in London. No doubt people will have their own opinion as to whether this is a good thing or otherwise.

It is hoped that the driverless car business from the USA called Waymo that is owned by Alphabet will be offering a robotaxi service later this year – in September 2026. We are sure that you will agree, September will soon be upon us.

You may find it of interest to note that the above company’s vehicles are mapping streets in London at the present time. So, who knows, you may see one of them driving around London. However, those vehicles are actually being driven by somebody.

So, do you think a driverless taxi is going to be safer than a taxi being driven by somebody? Well, some people are of the opinion that a driverless taxi is potentially going to be safer than a driven taxi as there is no driver at the wheel who will get tired or be worse the wear for drink or have their eyes taken off the road ahead.

Apparently, the above driverless taxis will utilize four sensors – a microphone, vision, lidar and radar. It is claimed that the sensors provide 360 degree awareness including during inclement weather and from a long distance. The boot of the taxi will have a computer inside it to process things. It is also interesting to read that Waymo driverless cars have driven around 173 million miles with most of that mileage having been conducted in the USA.

It is going to be very interesting to see how many people decide to get into a driverless taxi and be driven from a to b compared to the number of passengers who would prefer to be taken to their destination in a taxi that is being driven by a taxi driver. Like a lot of things in life, it may be that it takes some time before driverless taxis become widely accepted on our roads here in the UK.