First UK city to have driverless taxis revealed and not Manchester | UK | News

Mike Johns was trapped and despairing. The tech entrepreneur’s flight back to Los Angeles was leaving shortly, but his taxi was spinning in circles repeatedly in the airport parking lot in Scottsdale, Arizona, and he couldn’t escape.

On any other day, she might have begged the taxi driver to pull over and end her dizzying misery.

But like an episode of the dystopian sci-fi series Black Mirror coming to life, Johns was caught in a driverless vehicle with no one else in the car but himself and a rogue computer program.

“I put on my seat belt, I can’t get out of the car!” He eventually reached out to a customer service representative on his cell phone. “Is this hacked? What’s going on? I feel like I’m in the movies. Is someone playing a prank on me?”

Johns’ wild ride in January is among a host of issues plaguing robocar taxi service Waymo, which this week received approval to bring its fleet of driverless taxis to London next year.

“Great news, Londoners!” announced the company in a welcome statement. “We are taking our fully autonomous ride-hailing service across the pond, where we plan to offer rides without a human behind the wheel by 2026.”

So is Britain prepared for an onslaught of robocars that could spread across the country like the Day of the Triffids, if their experience in America is any guide?

Waymo’s self-driving taxis have run into a host of problems for their passengers, other drivers trying to share the road, irritated pedestrians and confused cops.

The addition of robocars to Britain’s overcrowded motorways, where drivers compete for space with buses, bikes and scooters, is expected to make our streets less dangerous.

“Autonomous vehicles such as Waymo have the potential to significantly improve road safety because the human driver is simply eliminated,” says James Gibson, managing director of Road Safety GB. “Data shows Waymo vehicles have performed significantly safer than human drivers over more than 100 million autonomous miles.”

But the experience of many Americans shows that not everyone will welcome them.

When driving, I always give a wide berth to the sparkling white, all-electric Jaguar I-PACE cars to be safe. Seeing a driverless vehicle roaming the city streets is unnerving, like seeing a ghost on a joy ride.

And Mike Johns’ ordeal trapped in a circling Waymo was far from unique.

Waymo passengers complained they were frightened when their robot cab parked unexpectedly in the middle of fast-moving Expressway traffic on “one of the scariest streets in Austin,” Texas, in April. They were locked inside the vehicle as cars passed by.

“We were saying, ‘We’re on the highway, please move the car,'” passenger Becky Navarro recalls. “Cars were honking at us and wouldn’t move. They wouldn’t let us out.”

Navarro claims that a customer service representative only unlocked the car when he threatened to broadcast a live video on TikTok.

Recent college graduates Aiselyn Hall and Emmie Wuest were driving in Tempe, Arizona, in August 2024 when their car encountered a Waymo driving the wrong way down the street.

“I was like, ‘Oh my god, we could really get hit from here,'” Wuest said.

Hall realized that the robocar’s passenger was helplessly trapped inside. “He couldn’t do anything, and that’s what was so scary,” he says. “He threw his hands up in the air.”

The two friends have hailed driverless taxis before, and Hall adds: “We thought we were a little safer on Waymo. We won’t be using Waymo again.”

The U.S. Traffic Safety Administration reported 462 traffic crashes involving Waymo vehicles last year; one of them was mortal. Waymo was sued in June after cyclists complained that its “safe exit” system failed to prevent cyclists from crashing into car doors as passengers were leaving.

Waymos annoyed other drivers by stalling at intersections, getting stuck on road closures, and causing congestion on busy city streets. Roadworks, unusual weather conditions or difficult lighting can confuse Waymo cars and cause them to stop, increasing traffic congestion.

Two Waymo cars caused a massive backup as a San Francisco Giants baseball game ended when they inexplicably stopped in the middle of a major roadway, blocking both lanes, leaving thousands of fans stuck with nowhere to go last year.

Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet Inc., recalled more than 1,200 self-driving cars in May to fix a software flaw that made it difficult for them to see low-visibility objects such as chains and doors along the road, which caused a series of crashes.

Police even complained that when they pulled Waymo over for driving offenses like making an illegal U-turn, they had no idea who to ticket because the driver’s seat was empty.

Pedestrians also complained about Waymo cars blocking their paths or making too much noise.

Residents near a parking lot occupied by dozens of Waymo vehicles in San Francisco were outraged after autonomous vehicles got confused and honked at each other throughout the night for weeks.

“Over the past two weeks, I’ve been woken up more times during the night than I’ve been woken up in 20 years,” Russell Popovski said.

Angry pedestrians also responded to Waymos. Pranksters deliberately ordered 50 Waymo cars to approach San Francisco’s longest cul-de-sac in July, causing a massive congestion. Others deliberately blocked the path of cars, causing them to stop.

Among those expected to roll out the red carpet for Waymo are the drivers of London’s famous black taxis; they may spend years learning the ‘Knowledge’ to qualify as taxi drivers. It will also put greater pressure on gig economy workers who drive for apps like Lyft and Uber.

But while robot cars have their occasional flaws, statistics show they have much better safety records than human drivers.

“They’re always ready,” says Andrew Maynard, a professor of high-tech migrations at Arizona State University who is also a regular Waymo user. “They’re not like people looking at their phones, listening to music, eating, looking at the ground, they’re very aware of their surroundings.

“Waymo is currently doing, I think, 100,000 rides a week. That’s a phenomenal number of people using Waymo without a human driver. Yes, you’ll run into weird situations where they do weird things, but that’s a very small fraction of the rides taken.”

Waymo cars have already logged more than 100 million autonomous miles with more than 10 million rides in the U.S., and the vehicles are currently being tested in Japan.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said this week: “I’m delighted that Waymo is considering bringing its services to London next year… Boosting AV [Autonomous Vehicle] “As well as bringing jobs, investment and opportunities to the UK, the sector will also increase accessible transport options.”

Despite their concerns, Los Angeles police found that the use of a Waymo taxi as a getaway vehicle following a grocery store robbery provided a benefit to robocars. Police had a Waymo agent remotely disable the car until officers arrived.

Waymo also updates its software frequently, hoping to eliminate many of its problems.

As for Mike Johns’ endlessly circling robot taxi, a Waymo customer service representative was finally able to take control of the vehicle remotely, and the tycoon made it to his flight with just a few minutes to spare.

Waymo generously waived the cost of the trip.

As Robocars head to Britain, customers may think twice about getting more Way Mo’ than they bargained for.