It seems that autonomous “robocabs” have taken another step forward with Freenow by Lyft and Baidu’s commencing testing in London.
The companies will use Baidu’s Apollo Go RT6 vehicles in their trial. The vehicles will have safety operators and, to start with, will operate within the borough of Brent, which has a mix of urban and suburban environments. This builds on Lyft’s 2025 announcement with Baidu for European deployment.
The vehicles will operate as part of a hybrid network, with both Freenow’s established taxi and private hire vehicles and AVs. For riders, this will mean faster pickup times as the number of vehicles on the platform increases.
Freenow by Lyft and Baidu’s Apollo Go will welcome public riders in these vehicles starting in 2027.
According to Freenow by Lyft, safety and close collaboration with city officials are central to this programme. Freenow and Lyft have been in extensive discussions with Transport for London (TfL) and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), aligning with regulators to support a safe, reliable and sustainable service for Londoners.
In Quotes
Thomas Zimmermann, CEO of Freenow by Lyft, said:
“As a platform with deep roots in the taxi industry, our priority is ensuring that autonomous technology supports the professional drivers who keep London moving. By integrating these purpose-built, autonomous vehicles from Baidu’s Apollo Go into the Freenow by Lyft ecosystem, we will give Londoners more sustainable choices to travel, encouraging them to choose shared mobility services over personally-owned vehicles.”
Nan Yang, Vice President of Baidu and General Manager of Overseas Business Unit, Intelligent Driving Group, added:
“The arrival of Apollo Go vehicles in London marks a defining milestone in our global expansion,”
“Testing our autonomous fleet in one of the world’s most iconic and complex urban environments validates our technology’s maturity and our commitment to this market. By combining our cutting-edge autonomous driving technology with Freenow by Lyft’s local operational expertise, we are officially moving from vision to reality, together.”
Let the battles be joined
London is turning into a battleground for autonomous vehicles, with Waymo and Uber, with Wayve, deploying their products for testing in the capital, which will represent a very different environment compared to the wide-open, multi-lane roads of cities in the USA and China.
Currently, all these trials have safety drivers in the vehicles as both the software and hardware try to adapt to a tighter urban environment.
We’ll have to see how these trials go and if these vehicles can adapt.
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