Performance Communications | February 9, 2026
We all know that driverless cars are no longer the stuff of science fiction. While both China and the US have embraced autonomous technology, Aisling Fitzgerald looks at why 2026 promises to be a big year for self-driving vehicles here in the UK…
This year is set to be a turning point for autonomous mobility in the UK. Following the 2024 Automated Vehicle Act, pilot schemes involving taxi- and bus-like services are set to commence in the coming months. The new initiatives, which will trial autonomous vehicles on UK roads with passengers, are being fast-tracked and, all going to plan, the expectation is for services to be fully up and running in late 2027.
And that’s not all. At the end of last year, Uber and Lyft announced a partnership with Chinese service Baidu and will launch robotaxis imminently, pending regulatory approval. The driverless taxi service has already delivered millions of unsupervised rides, mostly in cities in China.
The first unmanned vehicles are expected on roads and taking passengers from spring 2026, albeit on a managed trial basis.
Believe it or not, there is some history of self-driving vehicles in the UK. For example, Heathrow Terminal 5 is home to a series of driverless electric pods, navigating between the terminal building and a nearby car park. Heathrow has also partnered with Oxa to trial autonomous vehicles for cargo and logistics on site, but driving on public roads hasn’t happened yet.
Meanwhile, the US is speeding ahead. Waymo’s driverless ‘robotaxis’ have been available since 2018. The company, in partnership with Uber, is already operating in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin, and Waymo recently announced the extension of its service to several more US cities.
The UK is rolling out autonomous vehicle technology at a similar pace to the EU, where Tesla is attempting to launch its first service, however, there have been significant delays in a number of regions. For example, in Brussels, due to what Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, calls “out-dated” regulations.
Much is still up in the air when it comes to both the UK and EU roll-out of driverless vehicles, but the Department for Transport predicts that, in the UK, the self-driving car sector could be worth up to £42 billion by 2035, with almost 40,000 new jobs created.
For now, safety remains a concern, and not without merit. There have been reports of autonomous vehicles making mistakes, including trapping passengers, driving on the wrong side of the road, and failing altogether during power outages. There are also concerns around increasing congestion, especially in London, where much work has been done to reduce the numbers of cars on roads. Against this backdrop, it’s easy to understand why the idea of empty vehicles driving around by themselves isn’t popular.
But supporters of the technology argue that self-driving technology greatly improves safety. According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, approximately 90% of road accidents involve elements of human error, to which self-driving vehicles won’t be susceptible.
Until trials are completed, it will be hard to judge public readiness for driverless cars. Over half (59%) of UK respondents to a YouGov poll conducted in October last year said they would not feel comfortable riding in a driverless taxi under any circumstances. So regardless of the availability of, and regulatory approval for, the technology, it may be that the public is not ready to accept it just yet.
Only time will tell, but the US and Chinese rollout sets a precedent that suggests we can expect to see more fully automated vehicles on roads in the UK in the very near future.
