Self-driving cars work better than I predicted, though not nearly as well as their boosters claimed, but navigating London is a challenge!
Londoners are now able to hire self-driving taxis for the first time, after rides in Wayve’s autonomous vehicles were added to the Uber app on Thursday.
The chances of landing a robotaxi on request immediately are slim, with only 15 vehicles so far licensed. That contrasts with the more than 100,000 private hire vehicles in the capital – roughly the same number of Uber customers who have registered to take autonomous rides.
The cars will still come with a licensed human driver sitting in the front seat, ready to take over the controls should the need arise.
We are still not close to demonstrating the business case for these things. Drivers are cheap!
And yes, I understand the value of the fantasy personal robot car, but all of these self-driving taxis still have significant human intervention (which they obscure) whether behind the wheel or remotely.