Uber Adds Interest List for Small Wayve Trial with Safety Drivers in London, Launching Late 2026

Uber opened an interest list in its app for customers who want to ride in Wayve autonomous vehicles in London. The service is scheduled to go live later in 2026. Users can join the list by selecting “join interest list” in the “autonomous vehicles” section of “ride preferences” in the Uber app settings.

Uber stated that joining the list will increase chances of being matched with a Wayve autonomous vehicle at launch and will provide updates on the service launch. Neither Uber nor Wayve provided an exact launch date. ” Customers matched with a Wayve vehicle will be notified in the Uber app and given the option to switch to a non-autonomous vehicle.

Riders requesting UberX, Uber Electric, or Uber Comfort will pay the same rate with no additional cost for the autonomous vehicle. The launch is positioned as a phased rollout with negotiations on scope and scale ongoing with local authorities. The initial fleet size will be a mid-to-high single-digit number of cars, according to Victor Charoonsophonsak of Wayve.

The first rides will have a safety driver behind the wheel. Local regulations currently require a safety driver in the vehicles. Uber and Wayve declined to say when safety drivers would be removed. The UK currently has no fully driverless vehicles on public roads, though several companies are testing autonomous vehicles.

The UK government has said fully driverless ridehail pilots can begin from spring 2026. More full rollouts of driverless ridehailing will not come until late 2027 when the Automated Vehicles Act of 2024 fully takes effect. Wayve is a British startup based in London.