Reported by The Guardian
Mayor questions impact on air quality, congestion and jobs as government poised to allow driverless vehicles in capital
London’s mayor has called for a cap on the numbers of robotaxis on its streets, with the UK government poised to allow fully driverless vehicles to operate in the capital.
Sadiq Khan said politicians had failed to “grasp the pace of change” from the technology, which could threaten jobs and increase congestion in the city, and questioned whether the rules for autonomous cars were fit for purpose.
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His comments came after Chinese robotaxis, now being tested in London, were unveiled by Freenow by Lyft , a rival to Uber.
In September Uber started offering limited passenger services in Wayve’s self-driving cars , albeit with a safety driver in the front seat, under licence from Transport for London (TfL).
Freenow by Lyft is hoping to launch fully driverless Baidu robotaxis as early as next year, under a national licensing scheme.
However, the companies, as well as Waymo – which operates robotaxis in San Francisco and other US cities – are primarily focusing on London and Khan said the city needed to be able to limit the rollout.
“What we don’t want is a situation where there’s a big bang without proper regulation in place. We’ve got to make sure the regulation is fit for purpose before we have a mass rollout of things like automated vehicles,” said Khan.
He added: “I think the pace of change when it comes to tech and innovation has not been fully grasped by politicians. There’s got to be incremental movement when it comes to things like robotaxis or automated vehicles.
“We’re lobbying the government for TfL , for London, to have more powers than it currently has on things like automated vehicles.
“There are big questions that haven’t been answered yet: what impact will this have on air quality, on congestion, on those people whose livelihood is being a private hire vehicle driver or a black-taxi driver.”
Drivers’ unions have held protests at the London HQs of Wayve and Waymo in recent weeks, with many Uber drivers…