Driverless cars have been, for many generations of wide-eyed kids, part of an intangible, faraway future. But, since 2020, they've burst out of the film screen and onto the streets, picking up passengers in city's across the US. As California-based Waymo announces plans to trial driverless cars on London’s streets next spring, I’m confronted with a decidedly less sexy vision of this projected utopia - being a cyclist amongst it.
The battle for London’s streets is being played out by two companies with surprisingly similar names: London-based, Uber-backed Wayve, and the Californian company Waymo. Both have trialled their cars outside the UK, with Wayve technology trialled in Tokyo and Waymo fleets in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
