‘Leicester Square, please guv’: Self-driving taxis cleared for London streets ‘later this summer’

A Wayve autonomous car on a London street. Photograph: Wayve

The taxi app company Uber and the autonomous technology developer Wayve have been granted the first minicab licences in London allowing them to offer self-driving taxi rides to paying customers – but with a human safety driver in place, for now.

The companies said they would start trips in the UK “later this summer” before the full public launch.