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The year of robotaxis moves forward, and we have another robotaxi update today. The autonomous driving firm Wayve and partner Uber were granted Private Hire Vehicle licences from Transport for London (TfL) and can now deploy robotaxis in The Swinging City. That said, they must include human supervisors onboard for the time being.
Wayve uses Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles to host its AI hardware and software for autonomous driving. “The cars, which are equipped with the Wayve AI Driver and surround cameras and radar, were inspected to confirm that these vehicles meet all of TfL’s policy and safety standards,” the companies note.
“The licensing of the vehicles completes the ‘triple-lock’ requirement for Private Hire trips, where 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 and Uber’s TfL Private Hire Operator licence. Wayve’s vehicles are designed to operate autonomously, and will do the driving, with a trained and TfL licensed private hire driver onboard to oversee the trip and provide support or take over driving if needed.”
