Tech and AI

London has licensed the cars, the drivers and the modifications, and still cannot license a taxi with nobody in it

By Staff Writer  |  27 August 2026

Fifteen modified vehicles hold private hire licences in the capital, granted on 5 August, each valid for a year and each requiring a licensed driver in the seat. The guidance an operator must follow to go further has not been published, and no vehicle has yet been approved to carry passengers without one.

The distinction that decides everything here is what was licensed. The regulator confirmed that the vehicles were licensed as private hire vehicles, not as automated vehicles. Modifications to a batch of Ford Mustang Mach-E cars, fitted with surround cameras and radar and running Wayve's driving software, were independently assessed against the requirements of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, inspected, and approved for up to fifteen vehicles on a trial basis. Each licence runs for a year. A licensed driver must be in the vehicle and is responsible for it at all times.

I do not think we are in a rush to get [the guidelines] out. There is a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes.

Christina Calderato, director of strategy, Transport for London

Two permissions, one of which does not exist yet

Carrying paying passengers with nobody in the driving seat is a different permission entirely. It runs through the automated passenger services permit process operated by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, and no vehicle has been approved under it so far. Before an operator can even apply to the London regulator for consent, it needs the guidance setting out what it has to demonstrate, and that guidance has not been published. The regulator's director of strategy told the London Assembly transport committee last month that it would not be in a position to start accepting applications for some time.

Nothing here is a technical failure. The vehicles are on the road, the software is driving, the licences are issued and more than 100,000 Londoners have put their names down. What is missing is the document that says what good looks like.

Alex Kendall, Wayve's chief executive, said the company had never claimed it would be running a fully driverless operation this year, and declined to put a date on it while the approval process is still to be worked through. The company also intends to move to a different vehicle, a new model that is itself still in production, for the driverless service. Its rivals are in the same position: one has been testing in the capital and has now confirmed a German city as its first European commercial launch, late next year; another began testing here at the end of July and has spoken about public rides in 2027.

Why a construction reader should care

This is a familiar programme risk wearing an unfamiliar coat. A promoter has invested in assets, obtained every consent that exists, and cannot proceed because the consenting authority has not yet written the criteria for the consent that matters. There is no appeal against a document that has not been drafted, and no float to protect against it, because the delay is not on anyone's programme. It sits with a third party who owes no duty to the promoter's schedule.

The commercial consequence is already visible. In 2025 the then transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, brought the proposed timetable for commercial driverless trials forward by a year, to the spring of this year. That date has gone. Another European capital has taken first place with a supervised service, on the same pattern of a human still onboard. Revenue slips to the right, the waiting list ages, and the fleet burns its one year licences while the rules are drafted.

What is actually unresolved

The regulator says discussions have taken place about changes to the booking process, including a requirement that passengers opt in to travel in a modified vehicle with a safety driver. It has kept the ability to act if passenger safety is compromised, and it frames its position against a target of eliminating deaths and serious injuries on the capital's roads by 2041. None of that tells an operator what evidence will satisfy it. Until the guidance exists, the honest position is that nobody knows what the test is.