GMB Union has warned that plans to expand autonomous passenger services in London are “premature” without measures to protect professional drivers from potential economic disruption.

The warning, says TaxiPoint, follows the launch of supervised autonomous rides by Uber and Wayve in the capital, which allows passengers booking selected Uber services to be matched with an autonomous Ford Mustang Mach-E.

The vehicles currently operate with a trained Transport for London licensed private hire driver onboard to supervise the journey. However, the technology is being developed towards autonomous operation, raising longer-term questions about employment across the taxi and private hire sector.

GMB claims policymakers should address those consequences before services progress towards vehicles operating without drivers.

David McMullen, GMB Senior Organiser, said:

“With hundreds of thousands of people who work as drivers every day, we need to be really careful with the roll out of driverless cars unless we are prepared to see unprecedented levels of social and economic disruption.

“GMB has called on TfL and the Government to urgently take responsibility for developing a plan that protects drivers and holds operators accountable for the disruption that these services will ultimately cause.

“Until a plan is put in place to manage this transition and support drivers, it is premature to move to ‘driverless’ services.

“It’s vital that we consider the implications of this before it’s too late.”

(Picture: Uber)