In the last couple of weeks one of the most exciting news here in London was the awaited arrival of Waymo robotaxis. With the claim: “Hello London! Your Waymo ride is arriving” the company announced its upcoming service across the London streets (the full news is reported below in this newsletter) in 2026. “We’re excited to support London’s extensive network of bus, tube, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure with our ride-hailing service, which will be available via the Waymo app“, the company said.
I understand their fleet of robotaxis should be linking to the several London public transport services, along with an enigmatic “pedestrian infrastructure”. Waymo is aware of the hugely difference of streets topography between London and the US cities where they already run the service. As a matter of fact, they say: “London is a city of unparalleled history, vibrant culture, and a complex urban landscape“. This will definitely represent a technical challenge for their all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles, despite they describe the benefits of this service along four pillars:
- Safer Journeys = safety
- A more sustainable future = sustainability
- Enhanced accessibility = accessibility
- Traffic efficiency = traffic flow improvement
Personally, I might agree with the first two aspects and I am very happy about including the third one, despite I could see difficult for people in wheelchairs using this service.
Conversely, I am quite sceptical about the fourth aspect. Basically, the lot of technology equipping the I-PACE vehicles – that should ensure safety – is also intended to improve traffic efficiency and flow. Actually, this is one of the most controversial topics when we talk about traffic made of automated AND traditional human-driven vehicles.
The challenge is how to manage flows of totally digital/automated (and probably equipped with AI-based decision-making devices) vehicles with others made of fully analogic (human-based decision-making process) vehicles only marginally assisted by digital systems (i.e. Level 2 automation in the best situation).
It will be interesting to follow the evolution of this integration process.
Last, but not least, the business model is entirely missing. As already discussed in many articles debating the US-based Waymo service (as well as those CAV-based services of other operators), it is not clear how this business could/will be profitable. In some US cities, a single ride was said to cost about US$ 4, but it was not clear for how long (time-based fare) or how far (distance-based fare).
In Europe, we already experienced several failures of MaaS services where the business models were not that strong and the commercial offers to potential customers not fully convincing.
Hopefully, once the Waymo service in London will be up and running, we will have a better understanding of its economic/financial viability and whether this will be (maybe?) integrated in the Oyster card scheme (convenient for the majority of commuters and travellers) or it will require an additional payment action (such the Stansted Express train to Stansted Airport which does not accept Oyster cards) hindering a seamless travelling experience.
Stefano Mainero
EPN Consulting and EPN Consulting Research and Innovation Founder & CEO
Article written by human beings without any use of AI. EPN Consulting Ltd. copyright 2025
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