Waltham Forest is among 19 London boroughs where Waymo will ‘soon begin’ 24-hour trialling of its autonomous vehicles
Driverless cars will soon be roaming through the streets of Waltham Forest, thanks to American autonomous vehicle firm Waymo.
Waymo already runs a driverless ride-hailing service in Metro Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, and the United States firm says non-commercial trials in Waltham Forest and 18 other London boroughs will focus on mapping and safety.
In a statement, Waymo said: “We will soon begin conducting extensive trials of Waymo’s technology as part of our mapping and safety validation work across select boroughs in London, including Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Redbridge, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth, City of Westminster, and the City of London.”
Waymo added: “We are not yet offering commercial rides, but our testing hours typically run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure our technology can safely handle all of London’s road conditions.”
Human staff called “autonomous specialists” will be present in the vehicle during testing in order to monitor the system, intervening if necessary. Waymo uses Jaguar Land Rover’s electric I-PACE vehicles.
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said: “We’re thrilled to bring the reliability, safety and magic of Waymo to Londoners. Waymo is making roads safer and transportation more accessible where we operate. We’ve demonstrated how to responsibly scale fully autonomous ride-hailing, and we can’t wait to expand the benefits of our technology to the United Kingdom.”
No news is bad news
Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.
The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.
If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.
Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.
Monthly direct debit
Annual direct debit
£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.
More information on supporting us monthly or annually
More Information about donations
