Professor Siddartha Khastgir, Head of Safe Autonomy at WMG, comments on self-driving taxis being granted private hire licences by Transport for London

Following Transport for London’s decision to license a number of Wayve vehicles for supervised private hire journeys through Uber, with a trained, TfL-licensed driver onboard throughout, Professor Siddartha Khastgir, Head of Safe Autonomy at WMG, said:

“I welcome this step towards supervised journeys under the existing private hire framework. It is timely, responsible and the immediate value of this stage lies in the safety evidence it can generate.

“As I told the London Assembly Transport Committee in June, self-driving technology tested elsewhere cannot simply be assumed to be ready for London.

“A key aspect of this roll-out is that it is “supervised”, an essential backstop to ensure safety. The gradual roll-out is essential to understand the operational nuances of London in a safe and responsible manner. These supervised journeys should help build a clearer picture of how automated driving performs on the capital’s streets, particularly around pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.

“The data used to train and test the AI model powering self-driving systems must reflect the range of people and situations they will encounter. WMG has worked with regulators and developers on methods for improving the representativeness of this evidence.

“Lessons from supervised deployment should then be captured through post-deployment monitoring and reflected into the roll-out of true unsupervised self-driving vehicles. TfL is well placed to contribute its knowledge of London’s transport environment, and WMG will continue to support an evidence-led approach to deployment.”