Uber and Lyft partner with Chinese tech giant for self-driving cars in London.

Extract from ABC News

• Topic:AI

7 hours ago

Chinese tech company Baidu is teaming up with Uber and Lyft to test its Apollo robotaxis in the United Kingdom.   (AP: Andy Wong)

In short:

Rideshare companies Uber and Lyft are both partnering with Chinese tech company Baidu to bring self-driving cars to London.

Britain is emerging as a frontline for the global rollout of self-driving taxi services after the government decided to speed up its pilot program by moving the start date forward by a year.

What's next?

Testing for both companies is expected to start in the first half of 2026.

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Uber and Lyft are planning to bring robotaxi services to London next year in separate partnerships with Chinese tech giant Baidu, the companies say.

Uber said it is teaming up with Baidu's Apollo Go autonomous vehicle service to take part in a pilot program for self-driving taxi services that the British government is planning for next year.

Self-driving cars in limbo

Owners of late model Teslas can now access the company's self-driving technology. But the rules for how drivers can use it differ around the country.

Testing is expected to start in the first half of 2026, the two companies said in social media posts.

Lyft chief executive David Risher said in a post on X that the company is also partnering with Baidu for the robotaxi trials using Apollo Go RT6 vehicles that are "purpose-built for rideshare".

"We expect to start testing our initial fleet with dozens of vehicles next year — pending regulatory approval," he said, adding that Lyft planned to scale to hundreds of cars.

Britain is emerging as a frontline for the global rollout of self-driving taxi services after the government decided to speed up its pilot program by moving the start date up by a year.

Baidu is racing against rivals including Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, which said in October it plans to take part in the UK trials as part of its global expansion.

Wayve, a UK homegrown startup that is developing its own artificial intelligence technology for self-driving cars, has also teamed up with Uber to bring robotaxi service to the British capital.

AP