Lyft and Baidu enter London’s robotaxi battleground as testing begins

Chinese tech elephantine Baidu has started investigating autonomous vehicles successful London arsenic portion of its concern with Lyft and Freenow, the German taxi and multi-mobility app that Lyft present owns. Baidu is the latest successful a drawstring of companies to trial self-driving exertion successful the UK up of commercialized robotaxi deployments.

The testing, which began Tuesday with quality information operators, comes astir a twelvemonth aft the 2 companies struck a strategical concern to deploy Baidu’s purpose-built Apollo Go RT6 robotaxi crossed cardinal European markets done the Lyft platform. The vehicles volition yet beryllium disposable done Freenow, which Lyft acquired successful 2025 for astir $197 million.

That woody gave Lyft a foothold successful Europe’s ride-hailing market, wherever a fistful of well-funded companies are present jockeying to beryllium archetypal to marketplace with robotaxis.

London is peculiar is shaping up to beryllium a cardinal battleground successful the region. In April, Waymo began investigating its autonomous vehicles with quality information operators successful the city. Uber and its self-driving tech partner, Wayve, besides announced plans to motorboat a robotaxi work successful London this year. That archetypal work — which customers tin present motion up for connected an interest list — volition person quality information operators down the instrumentality earlier afloat driverless operations statesman later.

Baidu and Freenow by Lyft (as the second work is present called) said they expect to invitation the nationalist to hail their robotaxis successful 2027. The companies, which didn’t supply a much elaborate timeline, noted that the motorboat volition beryllium connected regulatory approval.

For now, dozens of trial vehicles volition run wrong London’s borough of Brent. Lyft and Freenow said they proceed discussions with information and metropolis officials, including Transport for London (TfL) and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV). The UK authorities is successful the process of creating autonomous conveyance regulations and opened applications successful May for companies funny successful an AV aviator program that lets companies trial self-driving vehicles nether authorities oversight.

When the work does launch, Freenow by Lyft said it volition run a hybrid web — employing the aforesaid connection rival Uber has utilized — meaning quality drivers operating taxis and private-hire vehicles volition enactment alongside the robotaxis.

“As a level with heavy roots successful the taxi industry, our precedence is ensuring that autonomous exertion supports the nonrecreational drivers who support London moving,” Thomas Zimmermann, CEO of Freenow by Lyft, said successful a statement.