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Uber, Lyft Team Up With Tesla Robotaxi Rival Baidu's Apollo Go In The UK

Benzinga · 2d ago

Ride-hailing giants Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) have partnered with Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc.-backed (NASDAQ:BIDU) Robotaxi company Apollo Go to bring self-driving taxis to the UK.

Testing In The First Half Of 2026

Sharing the announcement on the social media platform X on Monday, the official Uber handle shared that the company was partnering with Apollo Go to bring Robotaxis to London next year. "Testing is expected to start in the first half of 2026," Uber shared.

Lyft CEO David Risher also shared the announcement on X. "We expect to start testing our initial fleet with dozens of vehicles next year," Risher said, adding that the fleet would be deployed through the "Lyft and Freenow" platforms, "pending regulatory approval."

Waymo Announces UK Expansion

The news comes as Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) self-driving cab service Waymo had announced back in October that it would be expanding its services to the UK, partnering with fleet operator Moove to prepare for the rollout and continue discussions with local and national authorities in a bid to secure the regulatory permits necessary to run Robotaxis in the UK.

Waymo has so far logged more than 14 million driverless robotaxi rides, while also reaching the 450,000 rides-per-week milestone recently. The company currently has over 2,500 Robotaxis in its fleet across multiple cities in the U.S.

Apollo Go Reaches 250,000 Rides, Tesla Tests Driverless Robotaxis

Apollo Go also announced that it had reached the 250,000 paid Robotaxi rides per week mark, as well as sharing that its fleet had logged over 140 million driverless miles with over 17 million Robotaxi ride orders. The company also shared that it had recorded one incident with an airbag deployment for every 6.2 million miles driven.

Pony AI Inc. (NASDAQ:PONY), on the other hand, also announced it had signed a deal with Stellantis NV (NYSE:STLA) back in October to bring Robotaxis to Europe via the automaker’s AV-Ready Platform next year.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), on the other hand, has begun testing its driverless Robotaxis in Austin, confirmed by CEO Elon Musk. The testing is a major boost to the automaker's Robotaxi goals, which would now align with Musk's end-of-the-year timeline for Unsupervised Robotaxis in the city. Tesla is also targeting the expansion of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology into Europe next year, as confirmed by Dutch regulator RDW.

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